Girls und Panzer: Flyboys
by SulliMike23
Summary: Daisuke Nishizawa loves flying, especially when it comes to flying single-engine fighters. But prior to coming to Oorai High School, he wanted to avoid dogfighting as much as possible. But a twist of fate and a chance meeting with Miho Nishizumi changes all that. Miho/OC
1. Prologue

**A/N:** Well, I figured that I'd start one of these sooner or later. Being a military and history buff, I enjoy learning more and more about the tech from WWII and Girls und Panzer made me think a lot about that. But ever since I started watching Girls und Panzer I began to wonder, what do the boys do? If Sensha-do, Tankery, Tankwondo, whatever you wanna call it is for girls then what's there for boys? Suddenly it hit me, airplanes! Ever since WWI dogfighting (or fights between planes) has always been like a duel in the sky between men. One guy already came up with the concept here on , I figured I'd make my own version of this idea and add more characters and planes. So enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Girls und Panzer and all characters associated with it. I do own all OCs and un-affiliated places of the story however.

* * *

**Prologue**

From the air he could see them, 5 tanks in all rumbling through the ravine; a Churchill and 4 Mathildas all in a perfect V formation. He could also see the 4 tanks and single tank destroyer belonging to his team up on a ridge beginning to move out. It was hard NOT to see them, considering the paint schemes on them just seemed to scream 'shoot me' with the ridiculous bright colors. He just shook his head at the very idea that these girls would paint their tanks like that. The girls operating the STUG III actually had the audacity to put FLAGS on their tank destroyer.

Well, at least he and his fellow pilots didn't have to worry about being shot down by the 5 tanks from the opposing team. What they DID have to worry about, was the flight of planes operated by the opposing team's own pilots. After all, he and his fellow wingmen were the only ones keeping them from going down and attacking those said tanks.

"Looks like the girls are on the move." A voice came over the radio.

"Do you think that Miho's plan will work out?" Another from his second wingman asked.

"I certainly hope so," Daisuke Nishizawa, the lead pilot in Oorai High School's dogfighting club replied. "That is, if the others don't get trigger happy."

"You worry too much, Nishizawa-kun." The third voice belonging to the student council president of their school's boy division, Yoshi Sugita, said. "I'm sure the girls are prepared for this.

"I wish I shared your confidence, Kaichou," Daisuke said, gripping the control yoke of his Ki-43-III a little tightly, but not too tightly so as he doesn't fire off his Ho-103 machine guns. "But I've seen how Kawashima-sempai is when she's behind the trigger."

"He's got a point there, Kaichou," The first voice belonging to Johnny Doolittle, the American pilot of the group. "Kawashima-sempai didn't exactly take her time in the mock-fight a few days ago."

"I will admit, Maho-chan is a little…overenthusiastic," Yoshi said, tentatively. "But you have to admit, she did keep Miho and her team on the ropes for a little bit."

"Only because they got trapped on that bridge, Yoshi," The second voice belonging to Fredrick Goering, a German student, nearly snapped. "If Mako-chan didn't start driving their tank, they probably would've lost."

Daisuke shook his head and looked over at the planes belonging to their school. It was only 4 for now, but he hoped that they could grow that number. Besides his Nakajima Ki-43-III Hayabusa, Yoshi Sugita was piloting a Mitsubishi A6A Zero, Fredrick was piloting a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, and Johnny was piloting a Grumman F4F Wildcat.

It was strange how Oorai was able to have a mix of tanks and fighters just hidden in the various parts of the school's warship. Their fighters were a mix of some aircraft used by the Japanese, German, and American air forces. The girls, on the other hand, had a mix of tanks used by Germany, the Czech Republic, Japan, and America.

Miho Nishizumi and her team were driving a Panzer IV Ausf. D tank and were probably the only tank that looked like it belonged on a battlefield. Anzu Kadotani, the student council president of the girls' division of Oorai and the rest of the girls' student council operated a Panzer 38(t) that was painted a bright gold that he could see from at least 6,000 feet; he could probably find it at night, if necessary. The Hippo team, a group of girls who operated the aforementioned Sturmgeschütz III, had painted their tank destroyer with a bright red and blue paint scheme complete with Japanese war flags of the same color. The Duck team, the Oorai girls' volleyball team, operated the Japanese Type 89B painted brown with white kanji painted all over the armor. The Rabbit team, the last team of all first year students, drove an American M3 Lee painted a bright pink.

All but the Anglerfish team, Miho's team, had their tanks painted so that they could be easy targets for their opponents, St. Gloriana Academy. It made Daisuke want to shoot them himself; but then again, he could never understand girls.

But his focus was on his opponents that he and his 4 wingmen would be facing; St. Arthur Academy's fighter squadron. Like him and his wingmen, they were flying 4 fighters as well. But they were flying 3 Hawker Hurricanes and a Supermarine Spitfire; very much similar to what their counterparts of St. Gloriana were doing. Their lead plane was undoubtedly the Spitfire and Daisuke had made it clear that he would be the one to take it out.

"Alright, cut the chatter you guys," Daisuke interrupted before an argument broke out. "We'd better keep our eyes open for St. Arthur's fighters. They're out there somewhere, so start looking around."

"Roger!" Their collected voices came from over the radio.

"Daisuke-kun, do you read?" A soft feminine voice came over his radio.

Daisuke brought the microphone of his headpiece close to his face and replied, "I'm here, Miho-chan, what's up?"

"My team's making our move," Miho Nishizumi said looking up at Daisuke's plane from the turret of her team's tank. "Any sign of the enemy planes?"

"Negative," Daisuke said tonelessly. "No sign of them yet, but I won't let my guard down."

"Please be careful," Miho said in a worried tone. "We'll tell the others to keep their eyes open."

Daisuke smiled as she said that and said, "Thanks Miho-chan, we appreciate it."

"Give 'em hell Nishizawa-dono!" Yukari Akiyama's voice said enthusiastically. He could almost see her pump her fist up towards Daisuke's plane. It made Daisuke laugh.

"Tally-ho!" Johnny's voice interrupted his musings. "Bandits, 10 o'clock high!"

Daisuke immediately turned his eyes upward to his left and saw them, 4 specks growing larger as they got closer to their flight. From their outlines he could clearly tell that they were indeed the Hurricanes and Spitfire. On their wings they bore the emblem of St. Arthur Academy, which consisted of a shield behind a broadsword that had wings above the hilt complete with a tea set in front of it.

"Alright, guys," Daisuke said, his voice turning professional, "This is it! Remember, fire in bursts and aim for the wings, engine, or tail to take them down. Don't give them a chance to tag team you, and watch each other's backs!"

"Roger!"

"Move out!" Daisuke finally ordered, and one by one their planes turned towards the direction of the enemy planes.

The St. Arthur planes obviously spotted them as well and flew in perfect formation like their St. Gloriana counterparts towards their flight. Daisuke set his sights squarely on the Spitfire and waited. Seconds later, the two flights closed the distance and fired single bursts of machine gun fire at one another before passing each other. The 4 planes of Oorai High then broke formation and went after their respective targets as did the St. Arthur planes. Just like he hoped, the Spitfire had chosen to go after him and the two planes began to circle one another.

Daisuke looked up from his cockpit and saw the St. Arthur pilot look right back at him.

'_This is it,'_ He thought to himself. _'Here's hoping my skills haven't worn off.'_

For a few seconds, Daisuke began to remember how it all began. When he first transferred to Oorai High School only a week ago.

* * *

**A/N:** Well, that's it for the prologue. I apologize for it being short, I just wanted to give a brief introduction to the main character and the boys in the Dogfighting Club of the story. I also wanted to do what the anime did and have a brief beginning to the fight between their school and the boys school that they're up against. I'll explain more as the story develops. Tell me what you think.


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Finally! I finished chapter 1! It took me a while, but I finally got it done! This has got to be one of the longest chapters I have ever written. But I hope it was well worth the wait for all of you.

Disclaimer: See prologue.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Tankery and Dogfighting, Here They Come!**

*Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep*

He slammed his hand on top of the annoying alarm clock that had just woken him up after a long first night here in his new apartment. After clearing the cobwebs in his head, he made his bed and made sure to make a hospital corner out of habit. Years of discipline were just hard to get out of, even when you're far from home. That was the case for 16 year old Daisuke Nishizawa, who had just slipped out of his pajamas and into his new school uniform.

After slipping the last button of his black school uniform on, he decided to look at himself in the mirror. Looking back at him was a young man at about 5'9" with slightly tanned skin, wavy dark brown hair, and oak brown eyes. He seemed pretty normal, but Daisuke didn't consider himself normal. After all, he comes from a very prestigious family; especially when it came to aviation. After double checking his look, he decided he was presentable and grabbed his book bag before heading out the door and locking it behind him.

Daisuke had to admit, the town of Oorai was very peaceful; no one was really in a hurry to get anywhere and everyone was greeting each other with a friendly tone. It made him glad that he left the big city he came from. Just as he passed a local convenience store he heard a thud and a feminine voice making an "oof" sound in front of him, causing him to look.

In front of him, a girl about his age with short auburn hair and light brown eyes was nursing her forehead after bumping into a sign. She wore a school uniform indicating that she was indeed a student over at the high school's girl's department. He had to admit, she was rather cute.

The gentleman in him decided to kick in and he approached her and said, "Are you ok?"

The girl quickly turned around and saw him and quickly composed herself with a twinge of pink coloring her cheeks. "Y-yes, I'm fine." She said with an embarrassed stutter.

"You sure?" He asked her, taking a closer look at her forehead. "You did bump into that sign pretty good."

His closeness made the girl blush, not that he noticed, and she replied with another stutter. "I-I-I-I'm all right, r-really!"

Daisuke looked a little unsure, but decided not to pry any further. "Well, if you're sure…"

They then saw a group of girls wearing the same uniform as hers heading in the same direction they were both heading. Daisuke then saw a group of boys across the street wearing the same uniform as him heading that way as well. He then turned to the girl with a smile.

"Well, shall we get going?" He said, causing her to gasp lightly but she returned his smile and nodded and the two of them began their trek towards the school together.

"I don't need to be a genius to know that you're in the girls' division over at Oorai High, right?" Daisuke asked her, carrying his book bag over his shoulder.

The girl nodded and said, "That's right; I just transferred here a few days ago. This is my first day at school."

Daisuke laughed slightly at this. "Well, what a coincidence, me too!"

The girl looked at him in surprise. "Really? You just transferred here too?"

"Sure did," Daisuke confirmed with a nod.

The girl then lowered her head a little. "I'm kinda nervous; this is my first time going to a coed school."

"Well, it's just like any other school, I'm sure." Daisuke said with a shrug. "Except, of course, this school has a boys division too."

"That's why I'm nervous," The girl admitted with a blush. "I've never been in the same school with boys for a long time. I'm not sure if I can get comfortable with them."

"You're talking to me, aren't you?" Daisuke asked with a grin, making the girl look at him. "If you can have a conversation with me, then I think you'll do just fine."

The girl pondered his words for a moment and then smiled and said, "You're right."

The two of them shared a laugh at that. Daisuke had to admit, from his previous schools he hardly ever got a chance to talk to a girl even when he went to a coed school. After all, most of the schools he had been in were for boys only. Judging from what this girl had told him, she had only been to schools for girls. So it was basically a new experience for the both of them. He also had to admit, the girl he was talking to was rather cute.

"There it is." The girl said looking ahead, and sure enough their new school came into view.

The building itself was rather impressive looking, Daisuke had to admit. The light brown bricks and windows that made up the school's exterior made the school very modern looking. The sakura trees were all in bloom and certainly did make the school even prettier on the outside. The school's emblem was clearly shown on the outside wall; it reminded Daisuke of the German Army cross, except it was blue with black stripes and the bottom looked like it was a pair of ribbon tails. At each of the entrances, students of both boys and girls were conversing with one another while they headed towards their shoe lockers.

"Well, I guess I'll see you later then." Daisuke said to her as he was about to split up after they went through the gate.

"Wait," The girl said, stopping him in his tracks to look at her confusedly. "I…I didn't get your name."

Daisuke blinked but smiled at her and said, "It's Daisuke, Nishizawa Daisuke."

"Nishizawa…Daisuke-kun?" She said, trying his name out and then with a smile she decided to introduce herself. "It's nice to meet you, my name is Nishizumi Miho."

"Nishizumi Miho…" Daisuke said to himself, liking the way her name sounded. Then he grinned at her again. "It's nice to meet you too, Miho-chan."

The way he said her name, made Miho blush but she returned his grin with a smile.

"Well, I'll see you later, Miho-chan." Daisuke said, turning to leave.

"See you later, Daisuke-kun!" She called after him with a wave, which he returned.

* * *

Miho dropped her arm slowly as she watched Daisuke leave. Miho had to admit, this was the first time she had a decent conversation with a boy her age. It made her even happier to know that Daisuke was very friendly and had just transferred to Oorai like herself. It made her at ease knowing that she had met a boy she can be friends with. It also helped that he was kinda cute.

Wait where did that come from? She blushed as she just recalled her thoughts. But just as the first bell rang, Miho's thoughts were interrupted and not wanting to be late, she decided to rush to her shoe locker. But as she placed her indoor shoes on, she couldn't help but wonder if she'll see Daisuke at lunch.

* * *

Classes were rather long, even Daisuke had to admit; still, he was glad that a few of the boys in the school decided not to bother him much. Whenever a teacher asked him to read a passage in a book, or assisted in a math equation, he did it without question. When it came to academics, Daisuke excelled at it. But there were certain subjects he still had trouble in, such as English and biology. But they were minor problems, he was sure he'd improve on them sooner or later.

It then came about the time for lunch and Daisuke knew that it was one of the few times where the boys and girls divisions could actually interact with one another. There was one girl he hoped to find, and that was Miho.

"Hey new guy!" A voice interrupted his thoughts, as he gathered up his school supplies. He looked over to see where the voice came from and saw a couple of guys looking at him with friendly smiles on their faces.

The boy who spoke had spiky light red hair and dark green eyes with a slightly darker tan than Daisuke's; his uniform was partially unbuttoned and showed a t-shirt underneath his uniform shirt. He looked a few centimeters shorter than Daisuke. His most distinguishing feature was a small mole on his left cheek.

Next to him was a taller guy with lighter skin, smoothly combed blonde hair and dark blue eyes behind a pair of thin framed glasses. His uniform was completely neat and not a trace of it was wrinkled. To put it simply, this guy looked like he was the heartthrob from a shoujo manga. It wouldn't surprise Daisuke if this guy _was_ the heartthrob for the school. Both guys were well built and looked like they worked out as much as Daisuke did.

"You guys talking to me?" Daisuke asked, pointing at himself.

"You're the only other new student here in the boys' division," The blonde boy said, adjusting his glasses with a finger. "So who else would we be talking to?"

"Yeah, so what do ya say, you wanna have lunch with us?" The spiky haired boy said with a roguish grin, pointing his thumb at the two of them while having his arm on the blonde's shoulder (much to the latter's slight annoyance).

Daisuke looked at the two of them in surprise. He didn't expect anyone to ask if they wanted to have lunch with him right off the bat. But here they were, two guys asking him out right to join them for lunch. With a slight smile he nodded.

"Great!" The spiky haired kid said, going over to Daisuke and gave him a pat on the back, motioning him towards the cafeteria with the blonde haired boy in tow. "I think you'll love the cafeteria food here! But I think the girls are an even better treat, if ya know what I mean?" He said with another grin and wink.

Daisuke laughed a little nervously at that, but the other boy patted his shoulder as he caught up and said with an exasperated tone, "Try and ignore him, he tends to be a little brash with his statements."

"Hey! Don't tell me you don't find any of the girls here unattractive, Junichi!" The spiky hair retorted waving a fist at the other boy.

"Of course I do, Toshiro," Junichi, the blonde haired boy, replied curtly. "I'm just more polite about it."

"Your point?" Toshiro, the spiky haired boy, said crossing his arms and looking rather irritated by Junichi's politeness.

"C'mon guys, let's not fight," Daisuke said, raising both of his hands with a nervous smile and laugh. "Let's just get some food, I'm starving."

"Yeah, you're right," Toshiro said with a shrug. "Besides, you'll see what I mean once we hit the cafeteria."

* * *

"We haven't introduced ourselves yet," Junichi said as they finally entered a crowded cafeteria filled with students of both the boys and girls divisions. "I'm-"

"Tomonaga Junichi, blood type O, birthdate December 7th and Watanabe Toshiro, blood type A, birthdate June 4th." Daisuke suddenly interrupted him, garnering looks of shock from both boys. "I memorized the student roster before coming to class."

"Wow," Toshiro said, blinking. "Never thought you'd memorize all that."

"Even I hardly keep track of all our classmates." Junichi said as the three of them grabbed their lunch trays.

"Well, if I'm going to get to know everyone here, I might as well memorize their names and faces." Daisuke said with a shrug, gathering up his food.

"That sounds interesting." Junichi said, also gathering up his food.

"You sure are an interesting one Nishizawa Daisuke." Toshiro said with a grin.

"Daisuke-kun?" A familiar voice said, catching the boys' attention and there was Miho with two other girls on either side of her.

"Miho-chan." Daisuke said in surprise, seeing the girl he met that morning in the cafeteria.

"You know him, Miho-san?" The first girl with long dark hair said to Miho.

"Is he your boyfriend?" The lighter haired girl asked with a teasing grin, causing both Daisuke and Miho to blush.

"B-boyfriend!?"

"Oho…already snagged yourself a girlfriend here, Daisuke?" Said Toshiro with a grin of his own.

"N-no, we just met this morning!" Daisuke nearly exclaimed, his voice cracking slightly.

"We only walked to school, that's all!" Miho added, her blush making her face nearly resemble a radish.

"_Sure_ ya did…" Toshiro pressed, his grin never wavering before Junichi smacked him in the back of the head, making him almost drop his lunch. The action made the lighter haired girl laugh slightly.

"Quit teasing, Toshiro." Junichi chided him before turning to the girls and bowed apologetically. "I apologize for my friend's rudeness; he just doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut."

"It's alright," The dark haired girl said with a polite smile. "No harm done."

"Ano, Daisuke-kun," Miho said, catching Daisuke's attention. "Would you and your friends mind joining us?"

The question surprised Daisuke and the others but Daisuke smiled and nodded. "Sure," He said and turned his attention to the other girls. "That is, if you ladies don't mind?"

The other girls shared a glance and then turned to Daisuke with a smile. "Not at all," The dark haired girls said, her polite smile not wavering.

"We don't mind." The lighter haired girl said with a wider smile.

"Then we will gladly sit with you ladies." Junichi said with a kind smile.

* * *

A few minutes later, the six Oorai students sat down and introduced themselves to each other. The dark haired girl's name was Hana Isuzu and the orange haired girl's name was Saori Takabe. Both had the same homeroom as Miho and had openly decided to become friends with the girl. It made Daisuke happy to know that Miho had friends besides him now. Daisuke introduced himself and his own new friends to Miho and the girls and while Toshiro was brash and flirty with the girls, Junichi was very polite and gentlemanly towards them. Hana also acted just as polite as Junichi, but Saori was flirting with him, but rejected Toshiro's advances. It was like seeing a reflection in the two friends both Miho and Daisuke had made each.

"I'm so glad that I made some friends." Miho said with a smile. "I actually moved to Oorai by myself."

"Me too," Daisuke said giving Miho a smile. "It wasn't easy to convince my mom though, I'll tell you that."

"I see," Saori said, as she stirred some of her food in a dish. "I guess things like that happen. You know, like a complicated love triangle or someone says that they don't love you before you can confess your love to them, or your boyfriend cheats on you with four other girls."

That brought an uneasy look on both Miho and Daisuke's faces.

"Either that your girlfriend has an affair on ya while you're away on vacation." Toshiro said, taking a bite out of his food.

That made Miho and Daisuke even more uneasy.

"Did something happen with your families?" Hana asked the two of them. "Some in-family fighting or something related to some inheritance?

"Nothing like that…" Both Miho and Daisuke said at the same time, catching each other off guard.

"Did your parents move to different offices or something?" Saori said after taking a bit of food in her mouth.

"Not really," Daisuke said, but Miho was silent. "My mom was okay about me moving here after I convinced her."

"What about your father?" Junichi asked, after he sipped from his bowl of soup.

Daisuke's face became a little grim and he stopped eating. The others all looked at him wondering what was wrong. His grip on his chopsticks tightened a little.

"Daisuke-kun?" Miho said, trying to get him to open up.

"My dad…" Daisuke said almost silently. "He's…dead."

That brought everyone's eating to a crashing halt; they hadn't expected that kind of answer.

"I'm sorry," Miho said sadly, putting a hand on his arm.

"It's Ok," Daisuke said with a sad smile. "It happened a long time ago."

The table was silent for a moment; even Toshiro couldn't find any words to say to Daisuke after he gave that revelation. Thankfully it was Hana who suggested that they eat up before their food got cold. As they ate, they changed topics and continued to talk and eat right up till the end of lunchtime before returning to class; but not before Toshiro suggested that the six of them get together after school, which the girls unanimously agreed with.

* * *

"I gotta tell ya, Daisuke," Toshiro said from his desk. "You sure know how to pick 'em."

"What do you mean?" Daisuke asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"I mean, Nishizumi-chan," Toshiro replied with a wink making Daisuke reel back. "She's quite a cutie. You sure you're not dating her?"

"Wh-wha-?!" Daisuke blanched, his cheeks becoming red again.

"Toshiro," Junichi interrupted from his desk and adjusting his glasses again. "Must you tease him about that?"

"Well, they did seem pretty friendly towards each other." Toshiro said with a shrug. "And Nishizumi-chan is cute, don't you agree?"

This time it was Junichi's turn to blush, but he maintained his composure and said, "I will admit that Nishizumi-san is…interesting. But I don't think it's any of our business about Daisuke-san's love life."

"Party pooper." Toshiro grumbled under his breath.

"You sure act calm, Junichi." Daisuke noted, "It's like you've got the patience of a cat."

Toshiro grinned broadly. "Well, it's to be expected! After all, he is the number one player in the school's chess club." He boasted, giving Junichi a hard pat on the back, almost knocking his glasses off.

"Toshiro…" Junichi growled, regaining his posture.

"You play chess, Junichi?" Daisuke asked.

Junichi cleared his throat and said, "Well, I do dabble in it along with shogi and go. But I wouldn't say that I'm good at it."

"Don't be so modest, pal," Toshiro said to him, patting his shoulder. "You're a helluva lot better than some of the other guys in this school."

Daisuke couldn't help but smile at Toshiro's enthusiasm. "You're quite enthusiastic, Toshiro; it's no wonder you're quite friendly."

Toshiro laughed and put his arms behind his head. "What can I say; it's part of my charm."

"More like your greatest flaw." Junichi mumbled with a frown.

"Aww shut up Junichi!" Toshiro retorted, and Daisuke laughed slightly at their banter.

It was amazing; in just a few short hours Daisuke had made not one, not two, not three, but _five_ different friends that day. Miho, whom he met on the way to school, Junichi and Toshiro, and through Miho, Hana and Saori. At his old school, he hardly ever made that many friends. Sure he had one or two, but never any more than that. What made it even better was the fact that three of these said friends were girls; the first girls to ever become his friends in his entire life. For the first time in a long time, he felt happy. Happier than he had ever been.

But before he could think about it any further, Junichi and Toshiro's banter was suddenly interrupted by the sound of the forward classroom door sliding open and three older looking male students entered the front of the class causing a slight murmur to erupt from their classmates.

"Who's that?" Daisuke murmured to his friends and pointing at the three who just entered.

"That's the student council for the boys division here at Oorai." Junichi said, slightly surprised at the sight of them.

"What the heck are they doing here?" Toshiro said silently.

The three boys in question were in fact a couple years older looking than Daisuke. The one in the middle was the student council president, Yoshi Sugita. He was a few inches taller than Daisuke and had wavy dark hair and the same kind of skin tone as Junichi; he also had a darker shade of brown eyes than Daisuke that had a mischievous look in them. In his hand was a box of Pocky and was nibbling on one in his other hand.

To his left was someone of the same age, he had the same hair style as Junichi but the same skin tone as Daisuke; he was just a few centimeters shorter than Yoshi. Like Junichi, he wore a pair of thin-framed glasses that seemed to glint from the florescent lights in the room. This was Takeo Anabuki, the student council the student council's public relations manager. He seemed to be looking around for someone in the classroom.

The last student on the right was the same height as the vice-president and had the same skin tone as him. But his hair was a dark red color and was messier, and he had gray eyes. Like the vice-president, he too was looking around for someone. This was Hayao Akamatsu, vice-president of the boys division.

Together these three boys formed the boys division's student council at Oorai High School. Like the girls division's student council, they upheld the rules of the school in the boys division and delivered punishments to anyone who violated them. They also coordinated the budget for the boys division and determined what school clubs could remain open and what rooms they could use. Today, they were there on business with a certain student.

After a few seconds of searching, Takeo spotted Daisuke and pointed at him for Yoshi.

Yoshi finished off his pocky and waved at Daisuke before he and the student council approached them. "Yo, Nishizawa-kun!"

Daisuke reeled back in shock and replied, "Y-yes?"

The three of them surrounded his desk and it was Takeo who answered. "We need to talk."

* * *

A moment later, after introducing themselves to him, the student council brought him out into the hall outside the classroom and closed both doors so as the other students wouldn't hear their conversation.

"I'll go straight to the point," Yoshi said, nibbling on another stick of pocky. "We want you to take dogfighting as your mandatory class."

"What!?" Daisuke was really surprised at that declaration. "I thought this school didn't have a dogfighting class!"

"We're reviving it for this year," Takeo said, adjusting his glasses. "The student council for the girls' division will also be reviving the school's tankery class as well."

"But I came here for the express purpose of _avoiding_ dogfighting!" Daisuke explained, putting emphasis on the word 'avoiding.' "When I heard this school didn't have it and had started to become a coed school, I wanted to come here and avoid that."

"Don't worry about it!" Yoshi said wrapping his arm around Daisuke's shoulder and bringing his face close to Daisuke's, making him a little uncomfortable. "It must be destiny that brought you here to our school."

"Don't we choose what our mandatory classes are?" Daisuke asked trying to find a way out of this situation.

"Well, thanks!" The student council president said, patting his back harder than Toshiro did earlier before he and the rest of the student council left before Daisuke could protest any further.

"But I…don't want to dogfight…" Daisuke mumbled to himself helplessly, not noticing his two new friends watching from the door to their classroom.

* * *

For the next hour, Daisuke just continued to stare at his desk and held on to his pencil, not bothering to write down any notes. None of the other students, nor did his friends notice his staring off into space. Even as the teacher was making a math lecture, Daisuke just continued to stare as though he didn't even listen to the lecture.

"Now for this next problem," The teacher said looking at his student roster. "Nishizawa-kun." But Daisuke didn't answer him. "Nishizawa-kun?" He tried again, this time the other students were all staring at him, wondering what was wrong. "Nishizawa-kun!" The teacher said louder, finally snapping Daisuke out of his funk.

"Y-yes sir?"

"Are you feeling alright, Nishizawa-kun?" The teacher asked him with concern.

Daisuke looked down sadly at his desk. "No, sensei." He answered him before looking back and asked, "May I be excused to the infirmary?"

"Of course," The teacher nodded, allowing Daisuke to get up out of his chair and walk out of the classroom with everyone watching him leave, including Toshiro and Junichi watching with concern.

Suddenly Toshiro raised his hand up high and said, "Uh sensei, my stomach's not feeling well; I guess I ate something that didn't agree with my stomach, so can I be excused too?"

"I'm starting to feel a little uneasy myself, may I also be excused?" Junichi asked, raising his hand a little lower than Toshiro.

* * *

Reluctantly, the teacher let them go and Daisuke was grateful for that. It seemed that the two of them were worried about their newfound friend and wanted to see whatever the matter with him was. They walked in silence as they walked down the hallways to the infirmary, which was in the central building of the school where the two divisions met like in the cafeteria. They knocked on the door and told the nurse that they weren't feeling well, but she quickly silenced them.

"Please keep your voices down;" She said silently, "I have three other students from the girls division also here trying to rest."

That caught the boys' attention and the looked to see that three of the infirmary's beds were indeed occupied by three familiar sets of hair.

'_Miho-chan?'_ Daisuke was surprised to see her, Hana, and Saori here as were Junichi and Toshiro.

A minute or two later, the boys were now laying in the three beds opposite of the girls and the nurse told the three of them to try and not wake them. She then muttered something about 'spreading to the boys as well' before leaving the infirmary. For a few seconds, the six of them just laid there in silence as they heard the nurse's footsteps head down the hallway. Daisuke heard the rustling of bed sheets and saw that the girls were wide awake and as stunned as they were to see him, Junichi, and Toshiro.

"Daisuke-san, what are you boys doing here?" Hana said quietly, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention.

"We could ask you girls the same thing." Toshiro said making sure his voice was also low.

"Are you three really sick?" Junichi asked them, putting his glasses back on after taking them off to sleep on the bed.

"Not really," Saori spoke up, answering Junichi for them. "Miho was acting weird and we went with her to the nurse's office."

"Daisuke was acting weird too," Toshiro said, motioning his head towards said person. "He's been staring at his desk ever since the boys' student council talked to him earlier."

"That's odd," Hana said in a perplexed tone. "Miho-san started acting strange when the girls' student council talked to her earlier."

"That can't be a coincidence." Junichi said, narrowing his eyes and cupping his chin.

Daisuke listened in and finally spoke up, "Let me guess, Miho-chan, the girls' student council told you they were reviving the tankery class right?" His statement surprised everyone in the room, but Miho simply nodded in confirmation. He sighed and laid his head back down on his pillow. "That's what I thought; the boys' student council told me they were reviving it and the dogfighting class."

"Dogfighting?"

"Tankery?"

"You mean the school had a class that allowed dogs to fight?" Saori asked, a little mortified by the idea.

"No, no, no," Toshiro corrected her waving his arm. "Not that kind of dogfight, Daisuke means the battles between fighter planes."

"And if I'm not too mistaken, tankery is that all girls sport where girls fight in tanks am I right?" Junichi inquired, adjusting his glasses.

"That's right." Hana nodded in confirmation.

"Then I can only guess that the girls' student council president asked that you join tankery as your mandatory, huh Miho-chan?" Daisuke asked, not bothering to look at her or the others.

"She did." Miho confirmed again with a nod.

"Thought so," Daisuke said, closing his eyes. "The boys' student council president asked me to join dogfighting as mine."

"But why would they?" Toshiro asked a little stunned that the student councils would do this sort of thing to both his friends.

"Are the four of you in some sort of love rectangle or something?" Saori asked with a slight smile.

"This isn't a romance manga, Saori-san." Junichi deadpanned.

"They went out of their way to ask you two to join the tankery and dogfighting classes," Hana said in a delighted tone. "Miho-san must be an amazing fighter who has fought in many battles in tankery and Daisuke-san must be an incredible pilot who must have great experience in aerial duels."

"No," Daisuke answered for the two of them. "That's not it at all."

"Then what other reason is there?" Toshiro asked the two of them.

Both Miho and Daisuke were quiet for a while, but it was Miho who broke the silence. "The truth is…I come from a family that has a long history of riding tanks."

"And I come from a family that has a history of pilots." Daisuke finally said gripping his blanket tightly.

"That's awesome." Toshiro said in a quiet excited tone.

"Amazing." Hana said in admiration.

"But, I don't have a lot of good experience with tanks," Miho said sadly. "That's why I came to this school: to try and avoid tanks." She buried herself deeper under her covers.

"While I may be a good pilot," Daisuke said looking at Toshiro and then to Junichi. "My dogfighting skills have dwindled for the past few years. That's why my mom and I moved to Hiroshima in the mainland before I came here: so I could avoid dogfighting. But I needed some time by myself, so when I heard about this school and how it was now accepting boys, I just had to come here so I can avoid dogfighting even more." As Daisuke said this, he rolled over to his side and gripped the sheets with his hand and had pursed his lips.

"I see…" Junichi said nodding his head in understanding.

"So that's how it is." Saori said with a nod of understanding herself.

"So why force yourselves to do it anyway?" Toshiro said in a brighter tone, making both Miho and Daisuke to look at him. "It's not like all high school boys and girls do dogfighting and tankery anyway."

"If you're going to refuse the student councils," Hana spoke up, rolling her bed to look at the two of them. "Then we'll go with you."

"Huh?" Miho and Daisuke blinked.

"She's right," Junichi said giving the two of them a comforting smile that almost made Saori sigh. "We're your friends, and we will support the two of you with whatever you two decide to do."

Miho and Daisuke looked at each other and then smiled back at the others.

"Thanks you guys," Daisuke said for the both of them.

"Hey, what are friends for right?" Toshiro said with a grin.

Just then the bell for the next class rang catching their attention.

"Class is over already?" Saori said looking up to where the bell sound came from.

"All we have left is homeroom then." Hana said.

Just then the P.A. started to ring out catching the six of them off guard.

"_Attention,"_ A female voice sounded over the P.A., _"All students please convene in the gym. Repeat all students please convene in the gym."_

* * *

The six friends looked at each other in confusion before moving out of their beds and started heading towards the gym. A few minutes later, they and every other student in both the girls and boys divisions had entered the large gymnasium just on the other side of the central building of the school. They were, of course, forced to sit with the rest of their gender's divisions; much to their reluctance. The boys were seated on the left side of the gym, while the girls all sat on the right. Many of the students were murmuring with one another, wondering why the student council wanted all the students to be in the gym in the first place. But Miho and Daisuke had a good idea as to what they wanted to talk to all the students about.

At the front of the gym where the stage was, a few of the hall monitors were present and keeping an eye on the students as Yoshi, Takeo, Hayao, and three other girls, whom Daisuke assumed was the girls' division's student council, got up on the stage from different sides. They greeted each other before turning to all of the assembled students. Daisuke got a good look at the girls' student council, despite the fact he was literally in the middle of the gym.

The tallest of the three had short dark hair like Hana and only had a monocle that looked like half a pair of glasses; she also had a serious look on her face that made Daisuke believe that she was a no-nonsense kind of person. The second tallest had light brown hair tied up in a ponytail and seemed like a nicer looking girl. The last of the group was a good foot shorter than them; he guessed that she was at least 4'9" at the most. She had auburn hair tied up into a pair of pigtails. These were the girls' student council, Anzu Kadotani, Momo Kawashima, and Yuzu Koyama.

"Everyone quiet down," Momo announced causing all conversations to cease. "We will be starting our orientation of our school's mandatory electives, starting with the girls electives followed by the boys. So please pay close attention."

With that, the six of them left the stage just as the lights went down and a film projector started up on the gym's projection screen. It seemed like it was an old documentary that was titled 'Introduction to Tankery,' and seemed to be focused on a brief history of Tankery and how it made girls more feminine. The girls in the documentary looked like professional soldiers and held themselves as such. Everyone was startled at the sound of one of the tanks in the documentary firing its main cannon. Just as the documentary ended, the lights came back up and the student council came up on the stage again. Behind them was an image of the options for the girls which included tea ceremonies, flower arrangements, magic, and incense.

"I don't see how operating a tank makes a girl more feminine." Toshiro mumbled to Daisuke, making sure to use his hand to hide what he was saying.

"Quiet down please," Takeo announced as if he heard Toshiro. "These will be the mandatory options for the girls' division. We will now be presenting the options for the boys' division, so pay attention gentlemen."

With that, they left the stage once more and another documentary was projected over the screen. This one made Daisuke frown and narrow his eyes; it was titled 'Introduction to Dogfighting'.

After the title was done, an image of the Wright brothers' historical take-off was shown followed by an image of a Sopwith Camel and a Nieuport-Delage NiD 29 each with the emblems of different Japanese schools appeared on it.

"_Air Combat Maneuvering, or dogfighting as it's popularly called, has been a part of our heritage since the dawn of manned-flight." _The voice of Hayao Akamatsu narrated as an image of several young men wearing flight suits from the first World War standing attention were lined up for the camera and saluted. Behind them, was a squadron of Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighters, bearing the emblem of another school that Daisuke couldn't identify. _"Since dogfighting was started by men, it has been known as a gentlemen's sport known to have produced some of the greatest men in the world."_

The image showed another pilot along with a crew of engineers, technicians, and weapon loaders all saluting at the camera before turning towards the plane and bowing to it. They then approached the plane and began to work on it while the pilot slipped on his flight helmet and climbed into the cockpit while going over a checklist.

"_But dogfighting isn't strictly for pilots,"_ Hayao continued to narrate,_ "Technicians, engineers, and weapon loaders have been known to produce some of the smartest and strongest men in the world."_

The documentary then showed the plane's engine being started and the plane taking off with 4 other Messerschmitts like it taking off in formation with it. They then see the squadron in perfect formation in level flight with the lead pilot focusing his attention on the other planes. The pilot then turns to the camera with a salute before the plane banked to the left towards the camera with the other planes following suit. The documentary then shows the Bf-109 flying towards the camera firing its weapons complete with sound effect.

"_Because the complexity of aerial combat, only men have been allowed to enter in this sport. It will allow men to become more courteous, more disciplined, and sharper in the real world."_ Hayao continued as they now watch as different squadrons of planes are seen flying above a group of tanks with some ladies watching from the top hatch of the turret with a smile. _"But this doesn't mean that men will be excluded from the tankery competitions; many schools have integrated both to produce manlier men and more womanly women as both have been known to work together."_ They then see the pilots from the planes looking down at the tankery girls and giving them waves as the scene changes again to include a Panzer IV and Bf-109 approaching the camera. _"So join the dogfighting class and become stronger in both mind and body and learn to become proper gentlemen so more women will flock to you and you'll be a greater man in the business world."_

The documentary ended the same way as the tankery documentary with a look at the list of options for the boys' division on mandatory classes. Like the girls' division, it included classes like calligraphy, archery, and aikido but it also included things like kendo, karate, engineering, and of course dogfighting. Both forms were shown next to each other and now the students were conversing with one another even more as the student council went back on the stage one last time.

"Now years ago," Momo announced ignoring the conversations going on. All around Daisuke, the girls and boys of the school seemed transfixed on the tankery and dogfighting documentaries. "It was decided that the tankery world championships would be held in Japan."

"However, it was also decided that the world dogfighting championships would be held at the same time," Takeo said adding his explanation. "Therefore, the Ministry of Culture requested that all high schools and colleges strengthen their tankery and dogfighting teams. Some schools have even become coed as a result of this."

"So our school will be starting our tankery and dogfighting classes back up." Anzu said enthusiastically.

"Furthermore," Yoshi added in the same jovial tone. "Students who choose both classes as an option will receive special benefits. Our vice-presidents will explain."

"Those who do well in the classes will receive the following benefits." Hayao announced giving a nod to Yuzu, who nodded back and began to list out the benefits as if she memorized them.

"We will be giving 100 meal tickets for the cafeteria, 200 "get out of jail" cards if you're late for school," She started off the list before finishing in a more enthusiastic manner. "And you'll also receive three times the credit of a normal class!"

That last part garnered the attention of many students, especially a few certain students in both divisions.

"And that should wrap it up," Yoshi said as he and Anzu decided to close out the meeting.

"Thanks for coming everyone!" Anzu exclaimed as the six of them left the stage.

* * *

Later, Hana, Saori, Miho, Toshiro, Junichi, and Daisuke were all walking outside the school together. Hana, Saori, Toshiro, and Junichi seemed rather enthralled by the idea of what tankery and dogfighting would do for them. Miho and Daisuke, on the other hand were still in a very somber mood after that school meeting.

"I'm in!" Saori suddenly said, catching everyone's attention.

"What?"

Saori turned to Miho and said, "Modern boys love girls that are strong and dependable, and you'll be popular if you're in tankery right?"

"Imagine, being able to attract so many girls for just being a pilot, an engineer, or a technician," Toshiro said to himself in an excited tone while counting the options on his fingers before pumping his fists. "Then it's settled, I'm joining dogfighting!"

"You guys should take them too!" Saori said, looking at both Daisuke and Miho. "Your families were in tankery and dogfighting weren't they, Miho, Daisuke?"

"I…I don't…" Miho tried to say, but couldn't find the words to say. Daisuke, on the other hand remained silent.

"I quite agree," Hana suddenly said, gaining their attention. "I understand where Nishizumi-san and Nishizawa-san are coming from." She then looked very reminiscent. "My family has a long history of doing flower arrangements."

"I see." Miho said thoughtfully.

"I also understand where you two are coming from," Junichi said in the same tone as Hana. "My family has always done kendo for a long time."

"Really?" Daisuke asked, finally saying something.

"But, tankery seems very powerful." Hana said in a tone of admiration, confusing both Miho and Daisuke. "I've always wanted to do something like that keeps you more active than flower arrangement."

"And dogfighting certainly sounds more exciting than kendo," Junichi added with the same kind of smile. "Plus it sounds like it sounds a lot more active than waving a wooden sword around."

Miho and Daisuke just look shocked knowing what the both of them were now saying.

"So, I've decided to join tankery as well."

"And I will gladly take up dogfighting myself." They both declared as all six of them stopped, shocking both Miho and Daisuke even more. Suddenly Toshiro grabbed Daisuke in a light headlock.

"Hey, you should join dogfighting too, Daisuke!" He said, giving Daisuke a noogie, much to his annoyance before wrapping his other arm around Miho. "And you should join the tankery class too Nishizumi-chan!"

"Huh?!" Miho exclaimed, feeling quite uncomfortable in his grip.

Daisuke had finally had enough and shrugged Toshiro off of him and took Miho's hand in his own. "C'mon, Miho, I'll walk ya home." He said, dropping the "chan" suffix he usually gave her as he pulled her away from the others, who watched them in confusion.

"Was it something we said?" Toshiro asked the others, who only answered by shrugging their shoulders.

* * *

After grabbing their bags and grabbing their outdoor shoes from their footlockers, the two of them left the school in silence. They avoided the other students and walked down the street that led them to where they first met that very morning. Miho was still upset at what was going on; ever since she had left her old school she wanted to avoid anything that had to do with tankery. Daisuke, on the other hand, thought he had left everything and anything concerning dogfighting behind him years ago. But the silence between them began to unnerve Miho and she decided to break it.

"Umm…Daisuke-kun?"

"Huh?" He turned abruptly towards her, not expecting her to talk to him, startling her. "Sorry."

"It's okay," She said, giving him a reassuring smile but she frowned and looked at him. "Umm…you didn't have to drag me away from the others, you know."

Daisuke sighed and looked ahead. "I'm sorry, Miho-chan," He apologized. "It's just that they were pressuring us too much, and I could clearly tell you were getting upset at the thought of taking up tankery again. Especially with what happened last year at your old school." His last statement shocked her.

"How do you…?"

"I figured it out on my own," He answered her. "You went to Black Forrest Academy didn't you?" She nodded sadly, looking downtrodden. "Just as I thought. It didn't hit me until we talked about it in the infirmary. Your family is the head of that school, which means what you did during the final match against Pravda really upset them."

"It did." She confirmed silently.

He looked at her reassuringly. "Well if you ask me, you did the right thing for doing what you did."

"How do you know about it?" She asked him confusingly.

"I saw the match on TV last year," He answered before looking ahead again. "You got out of your tank and went to save another tank team that had fallen off of a cliff and into a river. But because yours was the flag tank, Pravda took advantage of what you were doing and took it out causing your school to lose the match."

"My mother, sister, and teammates were all upset about it." Miho said sadly, as she stopped walking, Daisuke stopped too to listen. "They always said that tankery was about winning and tradition. The fact that I abandoned my tank and lost the match for us made them so upset that I decided to transfer to another school where I didn't have to worry about tankery."

"But you risked your life to save the lives of those other girls," Daisuke said, putting his bag down, placed his hands on her shoulders, and looked at her amber colored eyes. "If you hadn't done that, this year's competition would've been postponed and the families of those girls would've petitioned to have tankery banned." Miho looked stunned at what Daisuke was telling her.

"I…never thought of it that way." She said slowly. She then looked back at his oak colored eyes, knowing something was bothering her. "But I don't understand something, Daisuke-kun. I paid attention to the dogfighting matches last year, and I don't recall ever hearing a Nishizawa participating in them."

Daisuke sighed sadly and turned to pick up his book bag. "I don't suppose you would have. I never joined a dogfighting class."

"Huh? Then how do you know so much about dogfighting?" Miho asked him, not understanding what he was talking about.

Daisuke closed his eyes tightly before reopening them and looking up at the twilight sky. "It all stems from my great-grandfather…Hiroyoshi Nishizawa."

"Hiroyoshi…" Miho murmured the name but then her face turned to shock, finally putting the name together. "You mean…"

"That's right," He nodded, looking at her sadly. "My grandfather was Japan's greatest ace in World War 2." He then looked back down the road. "My grandfather joined the JSDAF as a fighter pilot, and my dad was a professional dogfighter." His smile turned reminiscent as he remembered his dad. "He taught me everything there is to know about flying, even dogfighting."

"So then," Miho started beginning to put the pieces together. "Your family has all been pilots?"

"Only the men in my family," Daisuke clarified before looking sad again. "But being fighter pilots isn't the only thing my family had in common; they all died as a result of flying."

"What do you mean?"

Daisuke closed his eyes again, trying to clear the tears that were forming in his eyes. "My great-grandfather was killed over the Philippines in 1945, my grandfather died in a plane crash in 1974, and my dad died in a dogfighting accident 4 years ago."

Miho gasped, now understanding what Daisuke was saying to her. Not only did flying and dogfighting run in his family, but so did dying in an airplane. If what he said was true, then if he took up dogfighting he would follow in that tradition.

"Now do you see why I don't want to dogfight?" He said, his voice quivering, "I saw my dad's plane go down, that's partly why my mom and I left for Hiroshima. Their schools have no dogfighting classes, but they were all boys' schools and I knew that eventually one of them would reopen their dogfighting class eventually. So when I heard that Oorai had neither a tankery class nor a dogfighting class and was coed, I decided to transfer there." He explained, his voice cracking with each sentence. He closed his eyes as a lone tear began to roll down his cheek. "But now the student council wants to bring it back and wants me in it. I just…" He gritted his teeth, not saying anymore.

He then felt a soft hand on his cheek, wiping his tears away. He opened his eyes and saw Miho in front of him offering a comforting smile.

"It's alright Daisuke-kun," She assured him softly, before wrapping her arms around him and laid her head on his chest in a hug, surprising him greatly. "I completely understand."

Daisuke said nothing and smiled, wrapping his arms around her and returning the hug.

* * *

The next morning, Daisuke surprised Toshiro and Junichi by showing that he wanted his mandatory class to be archery instead of dogfighting.

"I'm sorry guys," He said quietly, not bothering to look at their faces. "I just can't do it. I came here to not have anything to do with dogfighting in the first place. I'm sure Miho-chan's telling Hana-chan and Saori-chan the same thing about her not wanting to take tankery either."

Toshiro and Junichi shared a look before looking back at Daisuke with easy smiles.

"It's okay, man." Toshiro said. "We understand."

"We apologize for making you and Miho-san upset." Junichi added as he and Toshiro suddenly crossed out their decision forms that said that they'd take up dogfighting and replaced it with archery as well, surprising Daisuke. "We will take the same as you."

"Now wait a second you guys," Daisuke protested. "Just because I don't want to take it doesn't mean you two don't have to."

"So?" Toshiro said dismissively. "It wouldn't be as fun without you there."

"But…"

"And besides," Junichi added, adjusting his glasses. "If we took dogfighting it would only remind us of what you didn't want to do."

"Yeah but…"

"And didn't we say it yesterday?" Toshiro finalized, putting Daisuke in another headlock. "We're your friends, we'll follow whatever decision you and Nishizumi-chan make! So who needs tankery and dogfighting anyway?" He then let Daisuke go and gave him a wide toothy grin while Junichi gave him a friendly smile.

Daisuke just gaped at the two of them, stunned that they were willing to join the same classes as him just because they wanted to be his friends. He finally smiled and laughed. "Thanks you guys."

* * *

Later the three boys met up with the girls in the cafeteria. As Daisuke suspected, Miho told both Hana and Saori her decision to take incense instead of tankery to them; but to his surprise they did the same thing that Toshiro and Junichi did and decided to join the same class with her because they didn't want to upset her by not being there with her. They even expressed how they also supported his decision not to take up dogfighting making Daisuke feel even better as the six of them sat down to eat. But the students around them, however, were all talking about joining either the tankery or dogfighting classes. Their conversations were starting to make both Miho and Daisuke uncomfortable because they were probably among the few students who decided not to take up either class. The others seemed to notice this as well.

"Umm, do you guys wanna get some sweet potato ice cream on the way home?" Saori said quickly, hoping to draw their attention away from the subject of tankery and dogfighting.

"Sweet potato ice cream?" Daisuke inquired, a little uneasy about that idea.

"Sure," Toshiro nodded. "Oorai is famous for its sweet potatoes!"

"I've heard of that!" Miho said excitedly. "String sweet potatoes are famous here too right?"

"That's right." Junichi confirmed, taking a mouthful of rice.

"They sometimes call them dried potatoes too." Saori said, her voice perking up knowing that she managed to bring the conversation away from the subject that made her friends uncomfortable.

But before their conversation could go any further, the P.A. sounded and Momo's voice interrupted all conversations. _"Attention, will Miho Nishizumi and Daisuke Nishizawa please report to the student council room immediately? I repeat, will Miho Nishizumi and Daisuke Nishizawa please report to the student council room immediately?"_

Miho suddenly looked at Daisuke nervously. "What should we do, Daisuke-kun?"

"We'll go with you two!" Saori said, leaning towards them.

"Yeah, we'll support you guys!" Toshiro said as he, Junichi, Saori, and Hana all gripped Daisuke and Miho's hands.

* * *

Later the six of them were in front of Anzu and Yoshi's desks. Anzu had her feet up in her chair while Yoshi was leaning back in his and had his feet folded on his desk. Behind them were the school's flag and a window looking out towards the ocean. In front of them were Momo, Yuzu, Takeo, and Hayao all looking at them with unhappy looks on their faces.

"Would you two care to explain these?" Momo pressed them, showing both Miho and Daisuke's mandatory forms.

"Why did you two pick those classes?" Anzu asked them, looking rather bored.

"There is almost no one with experience in either tankery or dogfighting in this school." Takeo said to them, readjusting his glasses so that the light reflecting off of them seemed to glare right at them.

"We're finished…" Yuzu said worriedly, her body trembling. "Our school is finished for sure."

"That won't happen, Yuzu-chan." Hayao said, trying to reassure her.

But Daisuke wasn't fazed. "I think it's very obvious why Miho and I chose those classes, ma'am." Daisuke answered her in a low tone, holding Miho's hand in his.

"Then would you care to enlighten us Nishizawa-kun?" Yoshi asked, also looking as bored as Anzu.

"Gladly," Daisuke answered in an even tone. "Neither Miho or I wanted to take tankery nor dogfighting. That was the main reason the two of us came to this school in the first place. But now here you guys are saying that you want to reopen both classes; and to make things worse you want us to join them too just because of our heritage." He narrowed his eyes at them. "Well I got news for both of you, neither I nor Miho-chan will take those classes, and we have made that decision final."

"I would suggest you reconsider that decision then, Nishizawa-san." Anzu warned him, her tone not changing.

"Why should we?" Daisuke shot back.

"Don't be so selfish!" Saori nearly yelled.

"They both said that they won't do it!" Hana added in an upset tone of her own.

"Just because you guys are the student council doesn't mean that you have the right to tell them what they can or can't do for a class." Toshiro added in pointing his finger at them.

"That's right," Junichi continued, narrowing his eyes at them. "They both said that they won't join tankery and dogfighting and now you want to force them into it?"

"We won't do it, so that is that." Daisuke said as though the conversation was over.

"Well then, I guess we'll make it so that you both won't be able to stay at this school any longer?" Anzu said with a leer.

"What?!" Toshiro shouted in shock.

"You can't threaten us like that." Hana protested.

"It's not a threat." Momo said, unfazed by their protests. "The presidents are always serious."

"Could've fooled me." Toshiro grumbled under his breath.

"Please reconsider your decision before it's too late." Yuzu pleaded, stepping towards the six friends. "Please think about it?"

"That's not fair!" Saori yelled.

"You're starting to abuse your authority." Hana said, narrowing her eyes in a frown.

"As the student council, we were given that authority." Takeo said again. "So there is no problem with it."

"You have no right to force them into doing either tankery or dogfighting!" Junichi argued.

While all this was going on, Miho was looking down at the floor, gripping Daisuke's hand even tighter. Thinking about what was going on. Daisuke stayed silent, but was gritting his teeth in frustration. She just continued to think about it and at last, she finally spoke up.

"I'll do it!"

Daisuke didn't bother to look at her, but he did grip her hand a little tighter.

"I'll do tankery." Miho said again, shocking Hana, Toshiro, Junichi, and Saori.

"Huh!?"

Her decision seemed to please the girls' student council, but Daisuke had stayed silent, prompting the boys' student council to look at him.

"And what about you, Nishizawa-kun?" Yoshi pressed on, awaiting his answer.

Everyone then turned to Daisuke, his hair shadowing his eyes while his lips were pursed. Miho looked the most worried; she hoped that she made the right decision but at the same time she hoped Daisuke wouldn't say anything that he would later regret. She also worried about what he told her the previous day about his family's heritage.

Finally, he grounded out, "Fine, you win."

His friends all looked at him in shock while the boys' student council looked just as pleased as the girls' student council.

"I'll do dogfighting," He said clearly but glared at the student council. "But don't think that this conversation between us is over. I'll be getting answers out of you for doing this to us."

"In due time, Nishizawa-kun." Yoshi said jovially, not caring for Daisuke's tone or look.

* * *

Later, the six friends were at an ice cream shop that Saori was talking about sitting down and trying out the different flavors. After what happened in the student council room, Daisuke had opted to stay behind to get answers from them as to why they wanted him and Miho in the tankery and dogfighting classes. The only answer he got was the fact that both he and Miho had experience with tanks and airplanes. He tried getting more, but they dismissed him before he could get any further. But it only confirmed Daisuke's suspicions that they were hiding something and he wanted to know what.

"Are you guys sure that was okay?" Toshiro asked the two of them, after he had a spoonful of his banana flavored ice cream.

"It's fine, Toshiro-kun." Miho reassured him.

"You guys shouldn't have to force yourselves." Saori said in concern.

"We'll be fine, Saori." Daisuke said.

"But…" Hana said slowly but Miho stopped her.

"I was…happy," She said, causing the five of them to look at her. "The five of you were willing to go so far for me." She then turned to Daisuke with a smile, who was seated next to her. "Especially you, Daisuke-kun, it was the first time anyone has ever done that for me." Her statement caused him to blush and look away shyly. "No one ever thought about how I felt. My mom and my sister always thought of tankery as something we did." She explained, feeling a little better. "But those two always had talent, so it was fine. But…I was always…" She trailed off and nobody said anything further.

Then Saori decided to cheer her up and gave her a taste of her ice cream, and Hana did the same with hers. This made Daisuke smile, knowing that Miho was feeling better but still a little upset that she was forced into doing tankery. He still wondered why the student council seemed so dead set on having the two of them in tankery and dogfighting. Maybe it had something to do with the girls' vice-president had said back then. His musings stopped short as a spoonful of ice cream was presented in front of him.

"Daisuke-kun," Miho said, catching his attention. "Say 'ahh'."

Daisuke blinked but did as he was told before closing his mouth around the spoon and tasting her pudding flavored ice cream with a smile. "Tastes good."

"Can I have some of yours?" She asked shyly, but Daisuke nodded and took a spoonful of his chocolate flavored ice cream and fed it to her. She laughed and smiled brightly at him. "So good."

"I'm glad you like it." He said with a smile.

"Oho...You two just shared an indirect kiss!" Toshiro suddenly said with a cat-like grin, cupping his chin.

"Eh?!" Daisuke and Miho looked mortified and were blushing heavily at that statement.

"So, when's the wedding you two?" Saori decided to join in, making them both blush even further.

"It's not like that!" They protested again.

"And here they go again…" Junichi said, taking a small spoonful of his ice cream.

"Teasing them in such a manner." Hana said, eating her ice cream at the same time.

* * *

Saori and Toshiro continued to tease the implied couple for a while before they all went home. The next day, the six of them and several other students from both divisions found themselves outside of a multi-door hangar just a mile north of the main building of the school. Daisuke took note of all those who came here. Out of the girls' division, only 21 girls came to the tankery class including Miho, Saori, Hana, and the girls' student council. Of the boys, including himself, Toshiro, Junichi, and the boys' student council, only 15 boys were present there. The student councils themselves were in front of the main door of the hangar as a few of the students were conversing with one another.

Finally, the student councils approached the others and Momo said, "As of today, we will be starting the tankery and dogfighting classes."

"What were the tanks again?" An enthusiastic brown-haired girl asked excitedly. "Tigers or..?"

"And the planes too?" A boy with darker brown hair asked in the same tone. "Are they Spitfires? Mustangs?"

"We forgot…" Anzu answered nervously. But they opened the hangar door and everyone walked inside to see what they saw.

Needless to say, most of them were a little disappointed in what they saw. Inside the hangar was only one tank and one fighter plane. Both had large patches of rust on them and parts missing. The tank itself was a Panzer IV Ausf. D and the plane was a Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa. Each one had a long history in the militaries they served, and they were fantastic machines. But the machines the students were all looking at seemed like they had seen better days.

It was Toshiro who voiced everyone's thoughts. "What a couple of pieces of junk!"

But Miho and Daisuke ignored him and both stepped towards the machines. Miho inspected the tank and Daisuke gave the plane a good look over and took note of what their kinks were.

"Wings are still intact, canopy needs replacing, needs a new prop, and the tail and rudders need to be fixed…" Daisuke said as he walked around, touching the Hayabusa and noting what needs to be done. "But overall, it looks like it's still in good shape to fly."

Miho noted that the armor and the treads of the tank were good too. The two of them backed up to get a good look at the two machines and nodded to each other.

"I think we can work with these." She said.

"I agree." He said, causing all the students to gasp in admiration. They then turned towards them all. "We can do this."

* * *

**A/N:** Now before anyone says anything, yes I realize I practically mirrored Miho's day with Daisuke's but added a few original stuff and that was intentional. Plus, I know Miho and Daisuke's relationship seems kind of rushed, but I will make sure that it doesn't get _too_ rushed. Anyway, that took me a while to finish, so what do you guys think of it? I will be introducing more characters and I will also post some WWII trivia based on what I did here. So, don't forget to review please!


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N:** At last! Chapter 2 is finally here and it's much longer than chapter 1 too! I hope you all enjoy it!

Disclaimer: See prologue

* * *

**C****hapter 2: We Ride Tanks and We Fly Planes**

"Are you sure we can work with these beat-up things?"

"Probably,"

"I think newer tanks are better, just like finding a new guy"

"What the heck is that supposed to mean, Saori?"

"I don't think that's right."

"How can I be wrong? Anyway, we only have one tank and one plane. But with the number of people in these classes…"

"We need five people total to operate the tank and only one person to fly the Hayabusa." Momo said as she looked over the two machines.

"But what will we do with the rest of the guys who won't be able to fly the plane?" Toshiro asked, crossing his arms.

"They'll have to be either spares or work as mechanics and weapon loaders." Takeo answered him, holding out a clipboard and looking over a couple of papers on it.

"But with all the girls here, we'd need only five to operate this tank." One of the boys said as he looked at the Panzer IV.

"So, shouldn't we be looking for other tanks and planes?" A girl from the first year students asked.

"Can we really do that?" Another girl asked.

"According to the school records," Takeo said showing his clipboard to Momo. "The school got rid of both its tankery and dogfighting classes' years ago; but the tanks and planes that they used should still be around somewhere."

"I'm sure they're around here then." Momo said after looking over the document before looking at the other students. "Our tankery and flight instructors should be coming here the day after tomorrow. We will find the remaining four tanks and the remaining three planes before then."

That sounded like a good idea to Daisuke, considering all they had at the moment were a Panzer IV and a Ki-43-III model Hayabusa. Both were in disrepair but at the same time they looked like that they could still work. While Daisuke knew about tanks as much as some people, his knowledge of them was not as reliable as his knowledge on airplanes. But he knew one thing, if their school was going to compete in this year's Tankery championships and Dogfighting championships; they were going to need more than a single Panzer and a Hayabusa.

"So, where do you think we might find them?" A girl wearing a red scarf asked.

Anzu shrugged and said, "We're looking for them because we don't know where they are."

That shocked everyone in the hangar. "You mean you have no idea where they are?" A first year girl asked worriedly.

"Nope!" Anzu answered cheerfully.

"So then, let's start searching." Momo ordered, but before anyone went anywhere, Junichi asked an important question.

"Just out of curiosity," He said garnering everyone's attention. "Given that there are more boys than planes here, how will we decide on who gets to fly them and who stays on the ground?"

"That's a good question," A foreign looking boy said looking at Yoshi. "How will we decide that?"

"We will be judging you while we test in flight simulators." Takeo answered his question. "Depending on how well each of us performs will decide who will fly the planes and who will not."

'_That makes sense,' _Daisuke thought to himself as he considered that answer. _'Flying fighter planes isn't exactly for complete rookies. We'll need pilots who can handle themselves in a combat situation, not guys who can only point and shoot blindly.'_

"This is a lot different than what we were told." Saori said in a dejected tone. "Isn't tankery supposed to make you popular?"

"I think that happens _after_ you start, Saori." Toshiro said leaning against the tank with his arms behind his head.

Anzu came up to them and waved away their worries by saying, "Well, a couple of really cool instructors are coming."

That caught their attention.

"Really?"

"You serious?"

"Sure, we'll introduce them to you." Anzu nodded, her smile never fading.

The idea of these cool instructors really made Saori and Toshiro excited. In their minds, the term "cool" meant that the instructors were of the opposite gender and someone they could try to hook up with. At least, that's what they pictured someone cool to be.

"We'll be off now!" They both exclaimed excitedly, practically dancing out the hangar doors with everyone else.

"I'll never understand how either of them thinks." Junichi said in an exasperated tone, shaking his head while holding his temple.

"I feel the same way." Hana said in the same tone and doing the same thing.

* * *

A half hour later…

"WHERE THE HECK ARE THEY!?" Saori and Toshiro shouted, waving their fists in the air.

After the student council had told everyone to start searching, one male student suggested that they split up into groups to search for the remaining planes and tanks. While most of the students split up with different groups of their own gender, Daisuke, Miho, and their friends decided to look together. They ended up outside in the school's parking lot at Saori's suggestion thinking that a tank or an airplane would be easy to find there. But of course, she was wrong about that.

"I don't think we'll find any tanks or airplanes in the school's parking lot." Hana told them calmly as she stood next to Junichi as their friends looked dejected.

"But tanks are sort of like cars aren't they?" Saori whined not bothering to look at her.

"Maybe so," Junichi said, adjusting his glasses. "But I doubt we'd find any airplanes here and they aren't like cars."

They both ignored him and began to walk way as Saori said, "Let's go to the forest on the other side of the school."

"Yeah, maybe we'll get lucky and find something there." Toshiro agreed as he walked behind her.

The others sighed and followed suit. Daisuke and Miho walked together of course, and still got teased by both Saori and Toshiro about it; but that didn't bother them much. They were starting to get used to Toshiro and Saori's teasing, but that didn't mean it didn't make them blush every time they did it. Still, they liked the idea of spending more time with one another and it made both of them feel happy.

"Daisuke-kun?" Miho said looking at Daisuke as they walked.

"Hmm?"

"What kind of planes do you think we'll find?" She asked him curiously.

Daisuke shrugged. "Who knows? For all I know, we might end up finding a Dauntless dive bomber or a P-51 Mustang."

"Well, I'm sure whatever we find will be…" She trailed off as she noticed something at the corner of her eye.

"What is it, Miho-chan?" Daisuke stopped noticing that she did the same. But he also saw something at the corner of his eye and knew what she was looking at now.

"Ano," Miho suddenly said as she and Daisuke abruptly turned around and looked at a pair of students who were following them. Their sudden action took both of them by surprise. "Would you two like to look around with us?"

The students in question were a girl and a boy. The girl had short bushy brown hair and the same color eyes as Daisuke and the way her uniform was presented she was in the same year as her and Daisuke; she stood at about the same height as Miho and had the same skin tone as her. The boy had the same skin tone as Daisuke but his hair was a very lighter brown and was a combination of wavy and spiky. He had blue eyes and round framed glasses that were very thin. If one could describe a nerd, he'd be the perfect image of one. His uniform also had the badge that indicated he was in the same year as Daisuke. When Miho asked if they both would like to look around with them, they both looked as excited as a couple of kids at Christmas.

"Really?"

"You'll let us look with you?"

"Sure," Daisuke nodded with a friendly smile. "Having a couple more sets of eyes wouldn't hurt."

"Thank you!" The girl said before fidgeting with a light tint of pink coloring her cheeks. "Umm, I'm in standard class II of the girls' division, second year, class 3. My name is Yukari Akiyama." She introduced herself shyly.

The boy nervously rubbed the back of his head. "I'm the same but in the boys' division class 4. My name is Goro Suzuki." He then grinned. "But everyone calls me, Goose."

Both of them then bowed and said at the same time, "It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too." Miho replied with a friendly smile of her own before looking a Goro. "Umm…why do they call you Goose?"

Goro laughed lightly. "Well, if you took a few letters out of my name and rearranged them it sounds like 'Gusu' or Goose."

"That makes sense." Daisuke laughed, already liking Goose as the others joined them.

"Well it's nice to meet you two!" Toshiro said, waving his hand. "Name's Toshiro Watanabe."

"How do you do," Junichi said, bowing politely. "My name is Junichi Tomonaga."

"My name is Hana Isuzu." Hana introduced herself with a bow.

"Saori Takabe here!" Saori said enthusiastically with a wave similar to Toshiro's.

"Ano, I'm…" Miho started to introduce herself.

"You don't have to tell us who the two of you are," Yukari said indicating her and Daisuke. "You're Miho Nishizumi-dono and Daisuke Nishizawa-dono right?"

The fact that she knew who they were stunned Miho and Daisuke. "Uh…yeah, how did you know?" Daisuke asked with uncertainty in his voice.

But Yukari didn't answer him as both she and Goose both saluted them with grins on their face. "It's nice to meet all of you."

* * *

Later, the group of eight was walking through the woods just outside of the school grounds keeping their eye out for anything that didn't belong. Namely anything resembling a tank or an airplane that looked like they were in disrepair or had not been used in a while. Despite how some of them knew the area well, they had decided to carry a map with them. Since Daisuke and Miho knew how to read maps better because of them both being familiar with using them for tankery and dogfighting, the others had unanimously voted that they carry it. They had come to a small clearing when Hana suddenly stopped and looked around a little more.

"What is it, Hana-san?" Junichi asked her but became confused as she closed her eyes and began sniffing the air.

"I smell something coming from over there." She said indicating to her right.

"You smell something?" Yukari asked her, a little confused by what she was saying.

"There's a slight scent of iron and oil mixed in with the smell of flowers." Hana replied as she began to what many would say 'follow her nose.'

"You can actually _smell_ that?" Toshiro gaped at her.

"It might just be me." Hana called back as she continued to walk in the direction her nose was taking her with Junichi following her.

Yukari then pumped her fist and pointed in the direction Hana was going and said, "In that case, Panzer Vor!"

But Saori misinterpreted what she said and gaped at her. "Pants fall!?"

This made Toshiro laugh so hard he was clutching his stomach making Saori glare at him.

"HA HA HA! That's not what she said, Saori!" Toshiro said through his laughter.

"It's not funny, Toshiro!" Saori retorted ready to smack him one.

Daisuke was doing his best not to laugh too even Goose was holding in some snickers, but Miho was the one who decided to clarify things. "Panzer vor means for all tanks to move out."

Toshiro then had a wicked grin on his face. "Besides, I don't need anything to fall from where I'm standing." He said lewdly with a wink. This made Saori blink and look down noticing he was looking up her…

Her face suddenly turned bright red as she brought her hands to cover her skirt while glaring at Toshiro.

"YOU PERVERT!" She shouted as she picked up her foot and kicked him in a very certain spot.

"YEEEOOOOOWWW!"

His scream echoed throughout the place and it managed to scare a few of the birds out of their trees.

* * *

Later, they were walking through the woods again following Hana's intuition and nose. The girls were leading with a very red and angry Saori stomping her way through the path. Hana looked a little worried about Saori while Miho looked rather nervous; Yukari on the other hand was grinning as she was trying to hide any laughter she might let out. Near the end of their group, Toshiro was walking very awkwardly from where Saori had kicked him. Daisuke and Junichi didn't look every happy with Toshiro as they walked alongside him while Goose just looked rather nervous looking at Saori.

"She didn't have to kick me so hard…" Toshiro whined in pain as he still felt the effects of the kick.

"You deserved it." Daisuke flippantly told him with a frown.

"A gentleman never looks up a lady's skirt." Junichi chided as he walked next to Daisuke with his arms crossed.

"I'm just glad I'm not you, Toshiro-san." Goose said walking with a nervous grin on his face.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the school's library a group of six first years from the girls' division were pouring through the books looking for anything regarding the whereabouts of the school's tanks. The girl leading them was a brunette named Asuna Sawa; she was the oldest out of them all and acted quite like a mother figure. She had just picked out a few more books and placed them on the table where the other girls were reading dozens of other books.

"Did you find anything yet?" She asked them.

"Not a thing," One of them with dark blonde hair, pigtails, and round framed glasses said. "There's no mention of any of the tanks."

"In fact there's nothing from when our school stopped doing tankery." The brunette girl next to her said.

"I wonder why they stopped doing tankery all of a sudden." A short dark haired girl said disappointedly.

"It probably lost its popularity." One of the other girls suggested. "I mean it is kind of old fashioned."

"Maybe that's the case with dogfighting too," A boy's voice said, catching their attention as he and a couple of other boys approached. "We looked through a few books and even searched through the school's database, there's nothing on any of the planes here."

The boy in question was a first year like them as his collar button indicated, but he wasn't Japanese. He had much darker skin than even Daisuke and his hair was short to the boy where it was more like a brush than a mop and had dark brown eyes. He was Johnny Doolittle, an American exchange student who had gotten lucky in being one of the few exchange students on Oorai's school warship. He was African-American and was about Daisuke's height. When he saw the presentation of the dogfighting class, he got intrigued since he had a friend whose grandfather served in WWII as one of the "Red Tails" as he called them.

With him were 3 other boys who were also first years who had taken up dogfighting out of pure fascination of the idea of the class. After the groups had split up to search the ship for the school's planes and tanks, they had opted to search the library with the first year girls for information on them. But so far, neither group was having any luck in finding anything on either the tanks or the planes; but that didn't mean that they were going to give up just yet.

"I suppose that makes sense." The short dark haired girl said again.

* * *

After a few minutes of walking and following Hana's directions her nose was leading her, Daisuke and Miho's group found what they were looking for. Nearly hidden among the trees, there was a dark armored tank nearly covered in rust with its top hatch open. The tank's armor was plated with screws holding it together and one could see the school's emblem painted on the side of the armor but time and the elements had faded the paint.

"We did it," Saori exclaimed happily. "We found one!"

"Well I'll be," Toshiro said in an astonished, now walking normally from their trek. "We actually did."

"What kind of tank is it?" Junichi asked as he inspected it.

"It's a 38 (t)." Miho answered as she looked at it.

"It's smaller than the last one." Saori noted with a disappointed look. "It's got screws all over the place."

"It's a light tank, from the looks of it." Daisuke said as he looked at the tank in question but then he noticed something that disturbed him and a couple of the others; Yukari was nuzzling it like it was a stuffed toy.

"The 38 (t) was part of Field Marshal Rommel's 7th Panzer Division," She said as though she was in euphoria. "And was an important tank for the initial stages of the Blitzkrieg. It's nimble and can cross distances very quickly." She then perked up as though she remembered something. "Oh, and the 't' in its name means that it was made in Czechoslovakia; it's not a unit of weight!" She then noticed the others' stares at her and she quickly became embarrassed, but Goose was just smiling as though he was used to this.

"You went crazy there for a while." Saori said perplexed as to why Yukari suddenly went gaga over the tank.

"That's Yukari for ya," Goose said with a laugh. "She just _loves_ tanks!" This made Yukari blush and rub the back of her head shyly.

"Well," Daisuke said after snapping out of his gaze at Yukari. "We better call the student council and let them know we found it."

"Good idea," Saori nodded as she pulled out her cell phone and began dialing Momo's number, who gave it out to each group.

Toshiro was rubbing his chin lightly and then he perked up as though a light bulb went on in his head. "Hey, if Hana can find this tank out here in the middle of the woods by just sniffing around," He said thoughtfully. "Maybe she can help us find a plane too!"

Some of the others gaped at him as though he were nuts, but it was Junichi who voiced it. "Toshiro, I don't think we should be using Hana-san like a…"

"Certainly," Everyone but Toshiro then gaped at Hana as though she had grown a second head. "I think it's only fair since the boys did help us find this tank. Helping them find a plane should be no problem."

"Are you sure, Hana-san?" Junichi asked her carefully. "I don't want to think that we're just using you like a bloodhound."

"I don't mind," Hana reassured him with a pleasant smile. "You boys did help us, so it's only fair that we do the same right?"

Everyone shared looks with one another but Toshiro before looking back at Hana with smiles on their faces.

"Well then," Daisuke said with a shrug and then waved his hand towards her making Toshiro jump for joy. "Lead on, Hana."

* * *

Meanwhile back at the hangar, the student council had just received Saori's call.

"Good work," Momo said with a nod. "I'll contact the automotive club and have them transport it back here, keep up the search." She then hung up and looked back towards the others of the student council. "Looks like we've found a tank."

"Well, that's good news." Hayao said with a relieved sigh.

"Looks like they can get things done, if they try." Anzu said after taking a bite out of her dried sweet potato.

"Now all they have to do is find three more tanks and three more planes." Takeo said as he looked off in the direction where Miho and Daisuke's group had found the 38 (t).

* * *

Back with Miho and Daisuke's group, Hana had indeed picked up the scent of airplane fuel and a type of aluminum and followed her to where the scent was coming from. Sure enough, they found it.

"Oh wow!" Goose exclaimed as he ran over to the plane and inspected it.

The plane was in a clearing with its canopy open and landing gear down. Like the Hayabusa it was covered in rust and had some parts on the wings, tail, and ailerons missing. Its aluminum armor was predominantly white with the school's emblem painted on the fuselage and wings. Its profile though, was quite familiar to almost anyone who was a history buff.

"An A6M Zero." Daisuke identified it almost in shock. "Never thought I'd see one of these here."

"I'll say!" Goose said excitedly as he began to rub against the plane himself. "It was the most produced airplane in the Japanese military! It flew more missions, shot down more planes, and had a longer range than any other plane in the Pacific theater up until 1944. Up until then, no other plane could outmatch it in a dogfight! This plane is a legend all its own!"

Everyone but Yukari gaped at Goose as he acted just as crazy about the Zero as Yukari did with the 38 (t). Yukari was wearing a proud grin of her own as though she knew Goose would react like this. Goose then remembered where he was and then composed himself but not without laughing nervously while rubbing the back of his head with a blush on his face.

"Wow, you're just as crazy about planes as Yukari is with tanks, Goose." Toshiro said as he blinked in bewilderment.

"That's good ol' Goose, for ya." Yukari said as she went up to him and gave him a hard pat on the back almost knocking his glasses off.

"Yukari, not so hard." Goose complained as he readjusted his glasses.

"Oh quit whining, I didn't hit you that hard." She retorted back.

"You two seem to know each other quite well." Hana said as she observed the exchange between them.

"Well, Goose and I go way back," Yukari said with a proud smile. "We're neighbors and childhood friends."

"We met when we were really young and have been friends ever since." Goose added with a smile of his own.

"Ooh! Childhood friends," Saori said giddily. "Does this mean that you two are dating?"

That question got both Yukari and Goose to blush. "NO WAY!" They both denied at the same time waving their hands at her.

"We're just friends, that's all!" Goose tried to clarify, but Saori and Toshiro weren't buying it.

"That's what they all say," Toshiro sing-songed with a shrug.

"C'mon, you guys, quit teasing them." Daisuke said, trying to stop the two 'love gurus' of the group to not make Yukari and Goose their next vic- err...patients.

* * *

Back with the student council, Junichi had been the one to call Takeo and informed him that they had found the Zero.

"Excellent," Takeo said in a pleased tone. "We'll get the automotive club to bring it here right away." He hung up his phone and turned to the others with a slight smirk. "That was Junichi Tomonaga, their group had just found a plane for us."

"Well that was fast," Yuzu said in astonishment. "First they find a tank, and now they find a plane not too soon after."

"This just means it will make our job a lot easier." Yoshi said, taking a bite out of his banana flavored pocky.

Hayao then looked a little nervous and turned to the two student council presidents. "Umm, Yoshi, Anzu," They looked at him as he said their names. "Do you think we should've told Nishizawa-san why we manipulated him and Nishizumi-san to join these classes?"

This time Yoshi looked more serious and answered, "We'll tell him after the championships are over. We all agreed that's when we would tell them."

But Hayao still looked worried. "Yeah but…"

"Hayao, don't worry so much," Yuzu said putting a hand on his arm. "We'll be fine."

"Besides," Anzu said taking another bite out of a dried sweet potato. "With Nishizumi-chan and Nishizawa-kun on our side, and with the instructors we hired, there's no way we'd lose."

"So you've got nothing to worry about." Yoshi said with a shrug taking another stick of pocky and was about to bite into it. But Hayao was not reassured.

"But what if we end up facing either Black Forest High or Pravda in the first round?" His question made them all pause. Even Anzu and Yoshi had stopped eating and had apprehensive looks on their faces.

They were silent for a moment until finally Anzu swallowed her bite and looked up at the sky. "Then I hope luck will be on our side if that happens."

* * *

For the next couple of hours, the other groups that had split up had found the planes and tanks they were searching for. One group of girls, which was the school's now defunct volleyball club, had found a tank in a cliff face not too far from where Daisuke and Miho's group had found the Zero. Another group of girls, who had proclaimed themselves as reincarnations of military leaders, had found another in a pond not far from the school. The group of first year girls actually found their tank in the ship's cargo hold with Johnny's group; they found a plane just a few compartments over.

The last group of boys was led by a German exchange student. His name was Fredrick Goering, he was a tall, well-built boy with bleach blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Because of his name, his group was a little reluctant, at first, to work with him. But after reassuring them that he only shared the name as the man who they were thinking he was related to and was not proud of it, they began to work with him better and they had found their plane just a kilometer away from where the group who found their tank in the pond were.

* * *

After calling the student council and letting them know that they had found them, the automotive club collected each tank and each plane and brought them back to the school's hangar all in a line. Each tank and plane had paint faded, parts missing, rust, and other signs of wear and tear. But for the most part, they looked like that they could run; at least that's what they all hoped. The next day, the student council then inspected each machine from one end of their lines to the other.

"A Type 89 medium tank I-Go (Chi Ro), a Panzer 38 (t) light tank, an M3 Lee medium tank, a Panzer III Ausf. F with an assault gun, and a Panzer IV Ausf. D medium tank." Momo noted each of the tanks as she identified each model.

"A Focke-Wulf Fw-109 D-9, a Mitsubishi A6M3b Zero, a Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat, and a Nakajima Ki-43-IIIb Hayabusa." Takeo identified each plane as they inspected them.

"How shall we assign the tanks?" Momo asked Anzu, not bothering to look at her.

"Hmm…" Anzu pondered. "How about we just have the girls ride the ones they found?"

"Are you sure we shouldn't do more than that?" Yuzu asked her in concern.

But Momo turned to her and said, "We'll take the 38 (t)," She then turned to Miho's group. "You guys can take the Panzer IV."

"Umm…Okay…" Miho nodded shyly.

"Therefore, the Panzer IV will be Team A, the Type 89 will be Team B, the STuG III will be Team C, the M3 Lee will be Team D, and the 38 (t) will be Team E." Momo informed them of each team based on who found what. "Our instructors will be coming tomorrow so make sure all of you behave properly."

"I wonder what they're like." Saori gushed quietly, making Yukari look a little uncomfortable.

"But what about pilots?" Hayao asked them, looking at Yoshi and Takeo as they were looking at the planes while the girls inspected their assigned tanks. "How will we decide them?"

"We've already got that covered." Takeo said, looking at Hayao before turning to the other boys in the class. "There are flight simulators in the school's hangar. We will be programing them to simulate a dogfight based on the specs of the planes you found. Only the best four out of all of us will be picked to fly the plane they are best suited for."

"Does that mean we'll be flying each plane in these simulators?" One of the boys from Johnny's group asked with a raised hand.

"That's correct," Takeo nodded in confirmation. "So that means whoever scores the highest in each simulation and has the most kills in whatever plane they're best in will fly those planes."

"That makes sense," Fredrick said with a nod. "That way we won't argue about who gets to fly what since fighter planes are usually manned by a single pilot."

"Precisely!" Yoshi said cheerfully.

With that everyone began to inspect the different machines; Goose was going all fanboy-mode on the planes as he looked over each one.

"Wow! I can't believe it!" He gushed as he rubbed the wing of the Wildcat before running to the Fw-190. "The Wildcat was a really awesome plane before the US Navy replaced it with the F6F Hellcat, and the Fw-190 was the most successful fighter plane the Germans made in World War II!"

"Somebody's in heaven," Daisuke laughed as he watched their new friend spout off trivia concerning each plane.

"I would say the same is true with Yukari-san." Junichi indicated Yukari who was just as bad as Goose was while Miho was inspecting their tank.

"Yeah," Toshiro said skeptically as he climbed up to the Hayabusa's left wing and over looked its cockpit. "But I still say these planes are just big piles of junk." He then pointed things out. "They each have parts missing, parts that need replacing, rust covering the bodies and wings, the paint's faded, and don't get me started on the cockpits, I mean look at this!" He said as he pointed at the inside of the Hayabusa's cockpit. Sure enough, the interior had some loose wiring, the meters had cracked glass, the seat was torn up in certain parts, and there was an ungodly smell coming from it that made Toshiro almost vomit.

"It just means we'll have to clean and fix them up." Daisuke said as he climbed up the opposite wing and looked inside before covering his own nose he then turned to the boys' student council as they were inspecting the Zero with a slight scowl, still remembering how they had gotten him in the class in the first place. "The school _does_ have replacement parts don't they?"

"But of course," Yoshi said dismissively with that ever present smile. "How else will you be getting the planes ready tomorrow?"

"Huh? Whaddya mean?" Toshiro asked as he looked at him in confusion.

"We only have four simulators," Takeo answered holding up four fingers. "While four of us will be in the simulators, everyone else will be cleaning and fixing the planes while the girls do the same with their tanks."

"EEEHHHH!?" Everyone looked at him in shock, not expecting that.

"You mean we have to clean our own tanks?" One of the first year girls questioned, not liking the idea already.

"That's right ladies," Anzu said with a cheerful nod. "So let's get to work!"

"Hai!" All the girls said.

Takeo then turned to the boys. "As for you gentlemen, we will be calling four of you at a time to be in the simulators. The rest of you will be working on the planes. The ones who score the highest in each simulation will pilot whatever plane they score the highest in."

"Ha!" Toshiro barked as he rubbed his hands together. "This oughtta be easy!"

* * *

An hour later…

"Or so I said…" He whined dejectedly as he scrubbed soap on the Hayabusa's right wing. "I got shot down in each simulator and didn't shoot down a single enemy plane!"

It was true, Toshiro was among the first to be called in the simulators. When he first flew in the Wildcat's simulation, he managed to take off from the simulated aircraft carrier before he got ambushed by a group of Zeroes just as he got to cruising altitude. He barely managed to fire a shot at a squadron of B-17s in the Fw-190 simulation before getting shot down by a Spitfire. He got better as he flew in the Zero simulator, at least in flying; but he got caught up in a Thach Weave as he chased an enemy Wildcat and ended up getting torn apart by its wingman. He managed to land a few hits on an enemy P-40 in the Hayabusa simulator, but another P-40 managed to get on his tail and tear his plane to pieces with its machine gun. Needless to say, Toshiro failed miserably.

But that didn't mean he was the only one who failed. As they cleaned the planes, each of the other boys relayed their dogfighting experience in each of the simulators. While some fared better than others, others just didn't cut it. But Toshiro was the one who scored the lowest out of all of them. A few of the boys were still missing from the cleaning and fixing duty, including Daisuke, which meant they were still in the simulators.

"Well, no one _said_ dogfighting was easy." Goose said, as he hosed down some of the grime that had collected on the Hayabusa's tailfin.

"Which means you'll have to do better next time, Toshiro." Junichi said, scrubbing the left wing with a brush.

"Oh yeah," Toshiro glared at Junichi. "So how did you do, Mr. Fancy-pants?"

Junichi simply continued to scrub but answered, "I managed to shoot down five enemy planes in the Zero before I was shot down by a Wildcat, but only shot down one plane in each of the other ones before being shot down."

"So you basically did no better than me." Toshiro boasted with a grin.

"On the contrary," Junichi smirked. "I _did_ do better than you."

Toshiro growled before turning to Goose. "What about you, Goose? How'd you do?"

"Well," Goose pondered for a moment as he recalled his simulator time. "I managed to shoot down one enemy plane in the Wildcat, two B-17s and one enemy Spitfire in the Fw-190, two Wildcats in the Zero, and two P-40s in the Hayabusa."

"Wow!" Toshiro exclaimed, almost slipping from his scrubbing. "You did a _lot_ better than Junichi!" Hearing that made Junichi's eyebrow twitch. "I wonder how Daisuke is doing."

"Last I heard," One of the first year boys spoke up from the Wildcat. "Nishizawa-sempai had just landed his plane in the Fw-190 simulator."

Everyone looked at him in surprise and Toshiro asked, "You mean he didn't get shot down?!"

"He took a few hits, from what he said," The first year said. "But from what I saw from when it was my turn, the damage was very minimal."

"Wow…" Goose said in astonishment. "He _must_ be good if he didn't get shot down in that simulator!"

"Yeah," Toshiro nodded before looking over in a certain direction. "Well, at least one good thing came out of this;" He said with a wide grin. "We've got some sweet eye-candy!"

This caused the boys to look over as they saw the girls in their bathing suits and cleaning up the tanks. When the student council had brought the boys to the flight simulators in the hangar, they were looking at what looked like the fuselages of the very planes they were now cleaning. But in reality, they were computer programmed flight simulators with the cockpits closing to a virtual reality environment complete with the said fuselages moving in sync with the pilot's movements of the plane. It even went so far as to simulate the impact of the shots made from enemy airplanes. As mentioned, Toshiro was among the first of the boys to be given the opportunity to test in the simulators while everyone else was instructed to switch out of their uniforms and into their gym clothes and get to work on the planes.

Of course, that was after the girls were instructed to do the same. When the boys came back after switching out of their clothes, they watched as the girls had all been cleaning their tanks and spraying each other with the hoses. Needless to say, when white clothes and water combined, it provided…an interesting show for the boys; especially Toshiro who was gaping at Yuzu, who was the only girl in her bikini. But after a scolding from Takeo and Junichi, who both were more disciplined than that, the boys went to work while more of them had been called to the simulators.

Speaking of Takeo, "Watanabe! Back to work!"

"Y-yes sir!" Toshiro replied quickly before going back to scrubbing. He then paused and looked in the direction where the simulators were inside the hangar. "I wonder what's taking Daisuke so long."

* * *

He wasn't the only one wondering that very same question. As she was scrubbing the inside of the Panzer IV, Miho had also noted that Daisuke was taking much longer than most of the boys in the simulators. He had been around when she and the other girls had started working on their tanks and she couldn't help but smile at him as he began working on cleaning the Ki-93 Hayabusa with Junichi and Goose while Toshiro started his simulator training. Every once in a while she would curiously look over in his direction and noted how his gym shirt would stick to his chest as he washed off the plane. She couldn't help but admire how well built his body was and how she wanted to be wrapped in his arms…

She blushed heavily and shook her head about that. _'What am I _thinking?!' She thought to herself, _'Daisuke-kun's my friend! Isn't he?'_

Miho had to admit, ever since she had met him Daisuke has been there for her even though they've only known each other for four days now. He was the first boy her age she's ever interacted with socially in a long time. Even before she started at Black Forest high the only boys she ever spoke to were some of the store owners, cashiers, or waiters at stores and restaurants she's been to; and they were all completely older than her.

Yet, despite only knowing her for such a short amount of time, Daisuke had already played a big part in her life at Oorai. Each morning they would meet in front of the very convenience store they met at and would walk to school together and after school the two of them would walk home up to that said convenience store before heading their separate ways. He stood up for her when the student council persisted that the two of them joined the tankery and dogfighting classes; even though the others did the same, Daisuke was the most vocal about it. He even told her something that he hadn't told anyone else in their year, not even their friends knew about why he wanted to avoid dogfighting but her.

So why was it that her heart sped up every time the two of them would see each other?

"Nishizumi-dono?" Yukari's voice interrupted her thoughts as she whipped her head to look at her as they were inside the tank cleaning the moisture out. "Are you okay? You were spacing out there for a bit."

She gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm alright," She answered before trailing off. "I was just…thinking."

Yukari gave her a knowing smile. "About Nishizawa-dono, right?" That made Miho gasp and look at her in shock, making her smile wider. "I knew it! You've been taking a look at the flight simulators ever since he started working in them."

"That's true," Saori said with a wide knowing smile of her own from the forward right hatch of the tank. "Ever since Daisuke started his simulations, you haven't stopped casting a look at them every now and then. You look like a wife who's worried about her husband before he goes off to war." That last part made Miho's face turn even redder and she stammered.

"T-t-t-that's not it at all! I was just…" She trailed off, not finding the right words to say.

The other girls in her team all looked at her as she then poked her head out of the hatch Saori was at and stared at the flight simulator that was moving around with Yoshi, Anzu, Takeo, and Momo all watching the computer screens that showed each of the boys that were testing. But the only simulator moving was the one for the Ki-93 Hayabusa, the one that Daisuke was in. All the other boys had finished their times in the simulators, but Daisuke was still in the one for the Hayabusa.

'_Daisuke-kun…'_

* * *

"Incredible!" Momo said in amazement.

"Simply astounding!" Takeo agreed as the two of them stared at the laptop screen in front of them. The two of them, Yoshi, and Anzu were all watching Daisuke's last simulator run. "He's really running the limits of the simulator to the max!"

Anzu and Yoshi looked at each other and nodded with smiles. "I think we've seen enough." Anzu said.

"I agree." Yoshi replied before turning to Takeo. "Alright, shut down the simulator."

"Right." Takeo nodded as he began typing away at the keyboard. A minute later, the simulator stopped moving and began to settle down before the cockpit opened with Daisuke climbing out, completely covered in sweat. "That's enough for today, Nishizawa-san. You're done."

"Right," Daisuke panted with a nod.

"Go rejoin your classmates, we'll be assembling everyone shortly." Momo told him, pointing towards his friends as they were finishing up with the Hayabusa.

"Yes ma'am." Daisuke said as he left the hangar a little wobbly in the legs with the student council watching him.

Yoshi grinned as he watched Daisuke, who had been greeted by his friends after he was a few feet away from the Hayabusa. _'He wasn't shot down even _once!_ Even though the planes he flew took good enough damage, he still managed to take off and land each and every one of them before we shut down the Hayabusa simulation.'_ He thought to himself as Daisuke was handed a water bottle by Toshiro and then proceeding to dumping it over his sweat covered body after taking a small swig, then Miho ran up to him with a worried expression on her face with her team in tow. _'If he can perform this well in a _simulator,_ I can only imagine how he'll perform in actual combat.'_

* * *

"You sure you're okay, Daisuke-kun?" Miho asked him as they joined up with the rest of the two classes as they gathered around after finishing the cleaning of all the tanks and planes.

"I'm fine, Miho-chan, really." Daisuke reassured her, trying to stay her worries.

When Daisuke's turn had come for the simulators, Daisuke was really nervous when he got up into the cockpit for the Wildcat's simulator. Ever since his father died, Daisuke had wanted to avoid anything that had to do with dogfighting, even video games. He had not stepped into the cockpit of any kind of fighter plane or the cockpit of a flight simulator since then. Sure, he flew a few small planes like a Cessna and a hobby bi-plane every now and then, but at least they were not armed. But ever since the student council had manipulated him and Miho into the now revived dogfighting and tankery classes, he had been worried that his skills had dulled over the years since.

But the moment he stepped into the cockpit of that first simulator, it was like his body went on autopilot; he made the necessary pre-flight checks and took off as the simulation started, and almost immediately went into the battle as he got into the same kind of ambush Toshiro had. But unlike Toshiro, Daisuke had managed to outfly his attackers and turn the tables on them while only taking a few shots to his plane, even one cannon shell to the left aileron that nearly got him blown out of the sky. It wasn't easy, but by the time he had shot down nearly all of the simulated number of planes, his ammunition ran out so he was forced to land.

The same thing happened in both the Fw-190 and Zero simulators as he managed to shoot down as many enemy planes he could before running low on fuel or ran out of ammo. When the time came for him to start flying in the Hayabusa, he was really worried because he knew the Hayabusa's limits to the letter. It was lightly armored, but very nimble; it was slow, but could dive pretty fast; plus it had a lower fuel amount than the Zero so he had to make his fuel and ammunition count. It paid off as the simulation started; he had managed to shoot down more planes than he counted in the other simulators before getting an enemy P-51 on his tail that would've shot him down if the student council hadn't shut it down.

By the time he was done, he was sweating heavily and near the point of exhaustion from moving the controls of the simulators for so long. It was no wonder that when Toshiro offered him a water bottle he took a huge swig from it before dumping it all over his body as Miho and the others ran up to him asking him if he was alright. But by the end of the class, everyone was tired, dirty, and wet from all the cleaning they had to do. Even poor Hayao and Yuzu, who had been doing most of the work on the Zero and 38 (t) while Yoshi, Anzu, Momo, and Takeo were busy watching the boys do their simulations. They had promised that they would take turns to clean the plane and the tank, but neither made due on that promise and the two of them had been stuck cleaning up until the class was done.

"Very good," Momo said as she inspected each machine. "We'll have the automotive club handle the rest of the maintenance for all of them later."

"In the meantime, before everyone is dismissed, we have the results of the simulations." Takeo announced pulling out an iPad. "Many of you did quite well, but very poorly in the tests;" He looked directly at Toshiro as he said this, who sulked from remembering his time in the simulators. "But the results are in and we have chosen our four pilots." He finished as he handed the iPad to Yoshi.

Yoshi looked over the list and nodded before looking at the boys, who all waited in anticipation. "Our first pilot is our American exchange student, Johnny Doolittle." He announced, causing Johnny and his three buddies to whoop for joy. "He managed to score the fourth highest out of us especially in the F4F Wildcat, so the Wildcat will be your plane Johnny."

"You can count on me!" Johnny said excitedly, giving a thumb's up.

Yoshi nodded and returned to the results. "Our next pilot is…" Everyone waited. "Fredrick Goering, our German exchange student." The said young man was shocked but pleased at the results and the group who found the Fw-190 with him all cheered as they congratulated him. "He scored the highest in the Fw-190 and therefore will be its pilot."

"Danke schöen." Fredrick said in German.

Yoshi then looked very pleased with himself. "And, since I scored highest in the Zero, I'll be the pilot for it." He then looked over at Daisuke with an impressed look on his face. "But the one who scored the highest out of all of us and managed to score highest in the Hayabusa simulation, is none other than Daisuke Nishizawa."

"Alright!" Toshiro cheered as he grabbed Daisuke in a headlock, much to the latter's poor nose. "Way to go Daisuke!"

"Congratulations Daisuke-san." Junichi said proudly to his friend, patting him on the shoulder.

"Ano…what was his score, Sugita-kaichou?" Miho asked nervously, wanting to know how well Daisuke did.

"I'm glad you asked, Nishizumi-chan." Yoshi said as he looked over Daisuke's score. "He managed to shoot down all five enemy planes in the Wildcat simulation, he shot down three B-17s and three Spitfires in the Fw-190 simulation, seven Wildcats in the Zero simulation, and five P-40s and three P-51s in the Hayabusa…all without getting shot down himself." That last part really stunned everyone but the student council.

"He…never got shot down?" Johnny slowly questioned, as though he heard wrong.

"Not even once." Yoshi confirmed with an impressed head shake.

Daisuke felt everyone's eyes on him and he rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I almost got shot down by a P-51 before you turned the Hayabusa's simulator off; and all the planes I flew took some damage during the simulations."

"Yes," Takeo nodded. "But you performed the best out of all of us and managed to land all but one of your planes. The best any of us has done was shooting down only up to five planes before returning to the simulated base."

"Wow, I never knew you were _that_ good Daisuke." Toshiro said looking very impressed with his new best friend.

"They were only simulations, Toshiro," Daisuke shrugged him off. "Had they been real pilots, it would've been a whole lot different."

"Give yourself some credit, Nishizawa-kun," Yoshi said, walking up to him and held out his hand. "You performed the best out of all of us." Daisuke looked at his hand and reluctantly took it as Yoshi shook it in congratulations.

"With that said," Takeo announced as Yoshi released Daisuke's hand. "Everyone is dismissed."

That gave everyone a sigh of relief and they began talking amongst themselves as they began to leave.

"I could use a shower." Saori whined as she looked at all the dirt and grime covering her body and clothes.

"Me too," Toshiro nodded in agreement as he took note of how dirty he was.

Daisuke said nothing as he stared at the new plane he would be flying for the class starting the next day. Miho just watched him with a worried look on her face.

"We should take it out for a spin." Yukari's voice said, snapping Miho from her musings and looking at her in confusion. "Our tank, we should take it out for a spin."

"Uh…yeah…" Miho said distractingly and returned her gaze to Daisuke.

* * *

Later, after everyone had showered and was back into their school uniforms, they had all headed home for a nice well-deserved rest from a hard day's work. Miho, Daisuke, and their friends had bought drinks and were at one of the ship's viewing platforms as they watched the sunset over the horizon. They were joined by their new friends and teammates Yukari Akiyama and Goro Suzuki or "Goose" as they now called him like everyone else.

Miho took a sip of her drink with a content smile. "I wonder which direction the port is."

Saori walked up to her and said with a dramatic sigh, "I want to make land already. I want to buy things at an outlet mall, too."

"Girls and their shopping," Toshiro grumbled under his breath while shaking his head before taking a swig of his juice.

"Weren't we scheduled to make port this weekend?" Hana asked, looking at the others.

"Yes, I believe we were." Junichi answered with a nod.

"Which port was it?" Saori asked him. "I have a boyfriend in every port, so it's hard to keep track."

What she said made Toshiro spit out his drink in shock. "Wh-what!? You have a boyfriend in every port!? How is that remotely possible?"

"I believe she means by 'boyfriend' she means every curry shop she always eats at." Hana informed him calmly.

Daisuke just didn't seem to hear them as he stared out at the drink he held in his hand. Miho was in the same distracted state, but every now and then her gaze would shift over to Daisuke. She wondered what he was thinking, but at the same time she was really worried about the next day. It would be the first time since she left her hometown that she would ever set foot in a tank and she wondered if she would be able to do well, considering what happened back at her old school. On the other hand, she was worried about how Daisuke seemed so distracted ever since he came out of the flight simulator.

"Umm…" Yukari's voice sounded, catching hers and Daisuke's attention. "Is it okay if we stop someplace on the way back?"

"Huh?" Miho sounded confused, but Yukari looked a little dejected.

"I guess we shouldn't." She said disappointedly.

But Miho and Daisuke shared a smile before Daisuke said, "Sure, we can stop wherever it is you want to stop at."

"Really?" Yukari perked up happily.

"Of course," Miho nodded in confirmation. "We don't mind."

Yukari just looked delighted and she bowed deeply to the two of them. "Thank you so much!"

* * *

Later, the group of friends was standing in front of a store where the sign said 'Armory Club'. It looked like a small, out of the way, type of store that had no front windows for any kind of displays. The only display they had was a group of sandbags, ammo boxes, spare fuel tanks, and a small model of a Bf-109 in flight just at the top of the door.

"I had no idea there was a store like this here." Hana said as she stared at the inside from the glass door.

"Neither did I," Junichi added in a perplexed tone.

Yukari and Goose led them all inside and immediately the smell of polished metal and clean floors invaded their noses as they took in the sight of the inside of the store. There were shelves upon shelves of spare tank and airplane parts, books on tanks and airplanes ranging from history to certain models to instruction manuals, and boxes of models of different types of military hardware. There were even posters on the walls depicting various tanks, fighter planes, and tankery and dogfighting teams. Even some clothing for pilots and tank crews adorned hangers for girls and boys. There were even television sets that were tuned into the local channels on both sports.

"This is pretty amazing." Saori said impressed with everything she was seeing. "All the tanks and airplanes look the same."

"Th-that's not true!" Yukari corrected her with a frown. "That's not true at all!"

"Tanks and airplanes are not all the same whatsoever." Goose added with a frown of his own before looking whimsically at the ceiling. "Every airplane is like a different personality, each with different performances and traits that separate themselves from each other."

"The same is true for tanks," Yukari said in the same tone before pumping her fist. "They all change depending on who's operating them."

"Not too different from flower arrangement." Hana said with a smile behind Yukari and Goose.

Saori nodded in agreement. "Girls have their good points about them too."

"Guys are just as different." Toshiro said sagely with a nod before making a thumb's up. "Let's try to get popular everyone."

"I doubt you will be considering what happened earlier." Junichi said in a dry tone while adjusting his glasses.

"Ahh shut up Junichi!" Toshiro retorted making the girls and Goose laugh.

Miho and Daisuke just simply watched their friends in bewilderment.

"It's like they're having a conversation but not really." Miho noted nervously.

"Yeah," Daisuke nodded.

A minute later, the group of friends was watching Yukari as she was playing an old tank video arcade game that was in the store. She seemed to be doing quite well, considering it was only a video game. But it looked like she was playing the game as though she was really inside the tank itself.

Right next to the tank game, Goose was playing an old arcade game that featured an old World War II fighter plane shooting at pixilated enemies in a forward motion background. Though it wasn't from the view of the cockpit, Goose seemed to be flying the plane really well. He only lost one life so far.

"You guys sure know what you're doing in these." Toshiro said as he watched them impressively.

"It sure looks fun." Hana said as she stood behind Yukari.

"But I don't want any wounds on my face…" Saori complained a little worried about what would happen.

"It's okay," Yukari reassured her, not taking her eyes off of the game. "They use real rounds in the matches, but they're used with emphasis on safety."

"The same is said for dogfighting," Goose said after destroying another enemy in his game. "All cockpits have been made bulletproof and all planes that don't have self-sealing fuel tanks have been replaced with them. Plus the bullet rounds are made to disintegrate once they impact the inside of the armor of the plane so that the pilot doesn't get hurt."

Daisuke and Miho just simply stood to the back as they watched their friends enjoy themselves. It wasn't that they weren't interested in what they were doing; they just wanted their friends to enjoy themselves without the two of them showing the melancholy they were feeling at the moment. This was their fun, not theirs and they didn't want to ruin it for them.

"They sure are enjoying themselves." Daisuke noted shifting his book bag on his shoulder and Miho's only reply was a quiet nod. The two of them then turned their attention to the TV that they stood in front as it was displaying the sports news.

"…_As we enter the 34__th__ competition."_ The newscaster said before the display image above her shoulder changed to a Panzer IV similar to Miho's tank. _"Next up is the news on tankery. We have an interview with Maho Nishizumi, an athlete that was chosen MVP in the high school circuit last year."_ She reported before an image of a girl wearing a black Tankery uniform with a cold expression on her face with another girl behind her in the same uniform with long gray hair and blue eyes appeared in the Panzer's place. The girl in the foreground looked almost like a carbon copy of Miho if it weren't for the fact that she had darker brown hair and that uncaring look on her face. But her name was what tipped Daisuke off as to who she was, Miho's older sister._ "She will get a special chance to train with the best in the nation."_

Daisuke looked at Miho as she looked stunned to see her sister on the TV screen in front of her. He couldn't blame her; it had been a while ago that she had decided to leave her old home and hadn't seen or heard from her elder sister since. The screen then shifted to a female reporter next to Maho.

"_What is your secret to winning in tankery?"_ The reporter asked her before holding the microphone out to Maho.

"_To never give up," _Maho answered her tonelessly before she turned towards the camera. _"And never to run away, no matter the situation."_

Miho gasped lightly and then looked down dejectedly as though her sister was talking to her through the TV. Daisuke narrowed his eyes at the screen, taking note of how cold Maho answered the reporter's question. It was like she didn't even care about what happened to her comrades during a match and that what happened in last year's championships still ran through her memory. The others noted how Miho was acting and looked at each other.

Saori clapped her hands together and attempted to distract Miho from her funk. "I know! Can I hang out in your room?" It seemed to have worked as Miho turned her attention towards Saori in confusion.

"I want to go too." Hana added with a smile.

Miho looked at them with a blush before smiling. "Sure."

Yukari looked a little nervous and was about to ask, but then Hana turned to her and asked. "How about you too, Akiyama-san?"

This seemed to please Yukari as she blushed and bowed in appreciation to her. "Thank you so much."

"What about you boys?" Saori asked, turning her attention to them. "You wanna come too?"

Daisuke, Toshiro, Junichi, and Goose all looked at each other; but the look on their faces was all the same. So Daisuke turned to Saori and answered with a nod.

"Sure," He said before looking a little concerned. "But, are you sure there'll be enough room for all of us?"

"Sure," Miho answered with an even brighter smile. "I'm sure all of us will be able to hang out together."

The girls all nodded in agreement with her with smiles on their faces; the boys smiled back and all agreed to their request.

* * *

Later that evening…

"It's kind of messy, but come on in." Miho said as she brought them all inside after they had taken their shoes off.

They all took note of the inside. It definitely seemed like a room fit for a girl. It had some green on one wall, the door leading to the bathroom, the closet and dresser, and even her small couch had green padding. There were a couple of boxes stacked up by the entrance that seemed to contain some of her belongings. She had a single table in front of her shelves where her TV set was. But the one thing Daisuke noted that really amused him was the number of teddy bears that occupied the room with her.

"Oh, how cute." Saori cooed as she looked at a group of teddy bears on the shelf next to her TV.

"You certainly like teddy bears, don't you Miho-chan?" Daisuke asked her with a smile.

Miho rubbed the back of her head with a blush and laughed nervously. "It's sort of a hobby of mine. I love collecting them."

"Your room really suits you." Hana commented as she inspected the room.

"It sure does." Toshiro agreed as Miho picked up a couple of magazines off of her couch before dropping them suddenly.

"You okay?" Yukari asked worriedly as she heard them drop.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Miho reassured her as she picked them back up.

Saori then pumped her fist. "Alright, how about we get started?" She then handed a grocery bag to Hana. "Hana, can you peel the potatoes for me?"

"Oh, sure." Hana agreed before turning to Junichi. "Junichi-san, would you care to help?"

"Certainly." He nodded.

"I'll cook the rice!" Yukari volunteered shooting her hand in the air.

"I've got the miso!" Goose followed with his own.

"I'll help you clean up, Miho-chan." Daisuke volunteered as he put his book bag down.

"Oh, you don't have to Daisuke-kun…" She protested.

"Nonsense," He waved her worries. "You're our host, I insist."

Miho didn't say anything for a moment before she smiled brightly at him. "Thank you."

A few moments later, Yukari and Goose had pulled out ration tins containing rice and miso soup. They also brought trays and tin dishes and started making the table while humming 'The Saints Go Marching In'. Saori and Toshiro looked at them with stunned looks.

"Why are you two using camping gear?" Saori asked them. "Do you always walk around like that?"

"Yeah, that way we can camp anywhere, anytime." Yukari answered as though she was used to the question. "Goose and I have been doing it ever since we were kids."

"Ouch!" A feminine cry came from the kitchen catching everyone's attention.

"Are you alright, Hana-san?" Junichi asked her in concern.

"I'm so sorry," She apologized while close to tears. "I've only cut flowers before."

"Oh dear," Miho cried out and started looking around. "I forgot where I put the Band-Aids."

Toshiro put his book bag down and walked over to her. "Here, let me take over. I've peeled potatoes before while serving detention, so I'm used to it." He took the knife and potato from her and continued to peel it and ended up finishing quicker than how slow she had started.

"Thank you, Toshiro-san." Hana said gratefully.

"We should get that cleaned up before it gets infected." Junichi indicated her cut and took her to the bathroom while Miho looked for the band-aids.

Daisuke decided to help look and then noticed something at the corner of his eye while he looked in a drawer. It was indeed what they were looking for.

"Aha!" He exclaimed, grabbing the box. "Found them!"

"Everyone, but the boys, is surprisingly useless." Saori said dryly as she took her contact lenses out and put them in her cleaning case before taking out her own glasses and putting them on.

* * *

About an hour later, the food was ready and the table was completely made. Despite how small the table was, there was enough food for everyone. Everyone was really impressed with how the table was made and how well spread out the food was. There were eight bowls of rice, eight bowls of miso soup, eight cups of tea, eight pairs of chopsticks, and dishes filled with different meat that could feet them all three times over.

"All right," Saori said looking rather pleased with herself. "Let's eat."

All at once, everyone brought their hands together and said, "Itadakimasu!"

With that, everyone grabbed their chopsticks and began eating. Of course, given the size of the table, the girls had to scoot over for each of the boys to sit down next to them. Daisuke sat next to Miho, Junichi sat next to Hana, Toshiro sat next to Saori, and of course Yukari and Goose sat next to each other. Miho had taken a bite of some of the meat and let out a sound of delight as she ate it.

"It's so yummy!" She exclaimed happily.

Daisuke ate a piece himself and was equally impressed. "Delicious!" He looked at Saori. "You're a really good cook, Saori-chan!"

"Well, meat and potatoes stew is great for seducing a man." She said proudly, making the boys almost choke on their food with blushes on their faces.

"Saori-chan!" Toshiro protested, thinking she was teasing them.

Hana then turned to Saori. "Have you ever been seduced by a man before?"

But it was Toshiro who answered. "Yeah, me!"

He didn't boast long as Saori pounded his head with her fist, being careful not to drop her food. "You don't count!" She then turned to Hana and said dryly. "No matter what you're doing, you have to practice first."

"Do guys even like meat and potatoes?" Yukari asked looking at Goose.

"Of course we do," Goose boasted, taking a bite out of his rice. "It's what we men usually survive on.

"There are men who are vegetarians, however." Junichi informed them, taking a small sip from his soup. "Not all men enjoy the taste of meat."

"But most of us do." Toshiro added after recovering from the lump Saori gave him and taking a bite out of some sashimi. "So don't be surprised if a guy expects some kind of meat in whatever meal he eats."

"I thought it was an urban legend." Hana said, tilting her head at what the boys were saying.

"You shouldn't listen to those kinds of things, Hana." Daisuke said amusingly. "What Goose and Junichi said is true; most men do enjoy meat and potatoes and some are vegetarians. But some men like both and enjoy a full course meal." He then took a sip of his tea. "I tell ya, my mom's an amazing cook; she could make even western meals and they taste amazing."

"See," Saori boasted. "There's your proof."

Miho smiled and then took notice of the flowers in a vase in the middle of the table. "These flowers look beautiful."

"I'm sorry," Hana apologized sadly. "I wish I could have done better."

"No," Miho dismissed her worries. "It really warms up the place when there are flowers."

This made Hana blush and smile. "Thank you."

Daisuke couldn't help but feel glad that he made all of these amazing friends in just a short amount of time. The way the eight of them were hanging out, you would think they had been doing this for a long time. Now here they all were, enjoying a nice dinner at one of their homes and having a pleasant conversation with one another.

"Hey," Toshiro suddenly said catching everyone's attention. "Next time we should hang out in Daisuke's room!"

"That's a good idea, Toshiro!" Saori agreed excitedly.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on guys," Daisuke tried to protest.

"I don't mind that." Junichi said after sipping his tea.

"Sounds good to me!" Goose said cheerfully.

One by one the others all seemed to agree with the idea, much to Daisuke's chagrin. He then felt Miho's hand on his and noticed that she was looking at him with an expectant smile. With a reluctant sigh, Daisuke looked at them with a smile.

"Alright," He said with a slight laugh. "Why not? It sure beats having instant meals every night."

Everyone cheered at that, even Miho was in brighter spirits now. Soon, everyone had eaten up every last ounce of food, dishes were cleaned up, and everyone had gathered up their bags to head home for the night. The girls had all said their goodbyes as did all the boys, except Daisuke who had decided to stay behind to say goodbye to Miho himself.

* * *

"See you tomorrow guys!" Miho called out as she waved goodbye to everyone, who waved back and said the same.

"Good night!" Daisuke called out, doing the same.

After the others had all reached out of earshot, Miho smiled brightly and said, "I'm so glad I transferred here."

"Me too," Daisuke agreed with a broad smile of his own. "I don't think I would've met any of you if I hadn't."

Miho then twiddled her fingers together and blushed. "I'm especially glad I met you, Daisuke-kun." This stunned Daisuke and she looked at him with a shy smile. "You were my first friend here, and even though you didn't have to, you stood up for me." Her smile turned even brighter. "Thank you."

Daisuke just stared at her, stunned that she told him that. He returned her smile with a smile of his own. "Me too, Miho-chan." He said. "Thank you for being my first friend here."

The two of them just stared at each other, smiling at one another as though no one else mattered. After a minute, Daisuke hoisted his book bag over his shoulder and said, "Well, good night, Miho-chan."

"Good night, Daisuke-kun." She replied softly, watching as he turned to leave.

As she watched him leave, Miho brought a hand to her chest and closed her eyes thanking whatever deity had blessed her for meeting him. She then turned back to her apartment building and practically skipped her way back to her apartment. It was as though life was finally looking up for her at last.

* * *

The next morning, Daisuke had arrived at the convenience store that he and Miho always met at and started waiting for her. A few other students had already passed by but he ignored them. After waiting a while Daisuke checked his watch and decided he would wait for her at the school's entrance. An hour later he saw her after waiting, being scolded by a female hall monitor while holding up a fellow student who looked like she could collapse at any time. She finished talking with the hall monitor and began walking towards the school with the other student.

"Sorry I'm late, Daisuke-kun." She apologized to him, straining to hold up her classmate. "But I couldn't help it."

"It's okay, Miho-chan," Daisuke replied with a reassuring smile. "I'm just glad you made it."

"Is he your boyfriend?" The girl she was carrying asked in a deadpan tone surprising the two of them.

"N-no!" Miho denied with a huge blush covering her face.

"W-we're just friends, is all!" Daisuke added with a blush of his own but the girl didn't seem to believe them.

She then turned to Miho and said, "I'm sorry for causing you trouble." Even though her voice and face didn't show it, she sounded sincere in her words.

"Don't worry about it," Miho replied as she and Daisuke helped bring her inside.

"I'll pay you back eventually." The girl said as Miho carefully dragged her inside.

* * *

An hour later, they met up with their friends and classmates in front of the school's hangar. Hana and Saori were worried when Miho didn't show up in time for class; they even called Daisuke to ask if he had seen her and he had said he had been waiting for her near the school entrance. When he had told them that, they became even more worried but he told them that he would call her if she didn't show up by the time the gates closed. When she finally arrived and the two of them made it to the hangar, she had apologized to them for being late.

"We were so worried that you were late." Hana said in a relieved tone.

"I overslept." Miho explained with an embarrassed smile, rubbing the back of her head.

"The instructors are late too." Saori whined. "Adults know how to tease don't they?"

Before she could complain any further, the sound of jet engines caught their attention and they saw what looked like a transport plane being escorted by a single fighter jet. The cargo plane itself was a Kawasaki C-2 transport and the fighter itself resembled an F-16, but the fighter was painted a navy blue. The transport plane had lowered its altitude and opened its rear hatch allowing a tank to exit in a collection of parachutes from behind. The tank landed hard into the school's parking lot and knocked a red sports car off its wheels as it skidded to a stop.

"Is that the headmaster's car!?" Yuzu cried in surprise.

"Now they've done it." Anzu said with a mouthful of her ever present dried sweet potatoes.

To further the damage, the tank backed out of the landing carriage it was in crushing the headmaster's car into a pancake before driving up to the fence where the parking lot ended. The F-16 looking fighter, on the other hand, circled around and touched down on the school's runway and taxying up to the hangar itself. The tank itself stopped at last and the top hatch opened allowing a young woman who looked about to be in her early 30s and wearing an officer's uniform of the JSDF to come out and remove her tactical helmet from her head, allowing her dark hair to flow back down to the back of her neck and her shoulders.

She turned towards the students and gave them a friendly smile. "Hello, there. It's nice to meet all of you." She then turned her attention towards the F-16 like jet as it's cockpit opened and one of the boys from Johnny's group brought a ladder for them to climb down on. "Looks like he decided not to show off."

They all looked as the pilot in question removed his flight helmet and brushed his head to get the spikes out of his dark brown hair before placing it on the console in front of him. The man then climbed out of the cockpit and onto the tarmac after turning his plane's engine off and walked over to the fence and looked disapprovingly at the woman in the tank. The man looked like he was about six and a half feet tall and carried an air of authority around him as he placed his hands on his hips.

"You just couldn't wait for the transport to land, couldn't you Captain?" He asked her dryly, quirking an eyebrow at her.

"Well where's the fun in that?" The woman questioned with a shrug as she climbed out of the tank. "Besides, I was really eager to start teaching these girls."

"We're here for work, not play, Captain Chouno." The man replied, not amused by his companion's carefree attitude. "So hurry up and be ready."

The woman saluted to him smartly. "Yes sir, Major!"

* * *

Later, the man had changed out of his flight suit and into a uniform similar to the woman's except their shoulder straps and wrist cuffs contained different stripes and stars on them indicating their ranks within the JSDF. Daisuke recognized the ranks immediately and knew that the man was indeed a rank above the woman next to him. But he also noted how the two of them seemed familiar with each other. It was like they knew and trusted each other quite well.

When the woman came out of the tank, Saori was disappointed because she had expected a man to be their Tankery instructor. After all, the JSDF did have plenty of men who could teach them the basics of operating a tank. But when she got a look at the man who came in on the fighter, her disappointment turned to giddiness as she watched how well he composed himself. It also helped that he looked quite handsome in her eyes. The same could be true in Toshiro's eyes when it came to both instructors, but for opposite reasons. In fact, the Major (as his rank identified him) seemed to intimidate him quite a bit. The others were just as impressed with both of them by how professional they seemed.

The students were now lined up in front of the school's hangar, with the man and woman both facing them at attention. The student council stood at the front of the class with them with Momo and Takeo more composed than either Yoshi or Anzu.

"These are our special instructors for the Tankery and Dogfighting units," Momo said as she introduced the classes to them. "Captain Ami Chouno, and Major Akio Chouno."

The both of them said, "It's nice to meet all of you."

"Chouno?" Goose echoed their surnames. "Does that mean…"

"Before any of you ask," Captain Ami said stopping Goose's words. "The two of us are married to each other. Sorry ladies, but he's mine." She finished cheerfully, making almost all the students, especially Saori and Toshiro groan in disappointment.

Major Akio glared at her and muttered, "You didn't have to put it _that_ way, Ami."

"Oh lighten up, Akio." She said back with a cheerful smile before turning to the class. "Anyway, we heard there were a lot of people here who are doing tankery and dogfighting for the first time."

"Some of you even reported that you had never flown a plane before in your lives." Akio said as he looked at the boys. "But four of you managed to succeed in the flight simulators and land your planes in them."

"So let's do our best!" Ami said as she looked at her students before noticing Miho. "Oh, aren't you Instructor Nishizumi's daughter?" She asked her, catching Miho off-guard as she approached her. "The instructor has done a lot for me. Is your sister doing well?"

"Uhh…y-yeah…" Miho replied shyly. After this the other girls began to murmur amongst themselves, but Daisuke narrowed his eyes at the woman wishing she hadn't reminded Miho of that.

But then Akio noticed him and had a stunned look on his face. "Excuse me," He addressed Daisuke, catching his attention. "Are you by chance, Nobusuke Nishizawa's son?" He asked him, making Daisuke gasp in shock before looking down a bit sadly.

"Yeah." Daisuke answered quietly.

The man smiled at him warmly. "I thought so, you certainly look like him. He and I were in the same dogfighting team together." He then frowned sadly at Daisuke. "I'm deeply sorry for your loss, he was a good man."

His last statement shocked the rest of the class as they all looked at Daisuke who simply nodded at Akio. The only one not shocked was Miho, since she had told her about it the day they had first met. Now the others knew why Daisuke avoided dogfighting so much, it was because his father was a dogfighter too. The fact that both their instructors knew Miho and Daisuke made everyone wonder if the two of them were famous.

Ami decided to clarify things for them a little. "The Nishizumi School is the tankery school with the longest history." She explained bringing gasps of astonishment from almost everybody.

Akio then decided to calm everyone down. "Now, before we begin are there any questions for us?"

"Captain," Saori called out, raising her hand. "Are you popular with the men?" Her question caught both Ami and Akio off guard, but it didn't seem to remove the uncomfortable feeling from either Miho or Daisuke.

Ami then laughed slightly. "Well, I would think so," She then wrapped her arm around Akio's and gave him a loving gaze. "But I've already got my man." She finished before giving him a peck on the cheek. This made Akio blush and the girls to go 'aww' while the boys all groaned in disappointment.

'_Why are all the hot ones taken?'_ Toshiro thought to himself miserably.

"Captain," Yukari called out, raising her hand. "What will we be doing today?"

"I'm glad you asked," Ami said looking at the collection of girl students. "We will be throwing you girls into things right away and have a mock battle."

That statement brought a shock to all the girls as they wondered if it was too soon. Akio then turned to the boys.

"Now, Yoshi tells me that he and three of you gentlemen have been carefully selected as the pilots for your planes along with him." Akio said as he looked them over. "So will the pilots of those planes please step forward?" While Fredrick and Johnny both eagerly stepped up, Daisuke reluctantly did so after some urging from his friends. Akio nodded and said, "Very good, we will also be having a mock battle in the air at the same time the girls have theirs."

That also brought a shock to the pilots, even Daisuke. "So soon?"

"It'll be fine," Ami reassured them all. "If you're all going to gain experience, you need to learn how to move your machines and learn how to operate them properly." She then pulled out a map. "All of you will head off to your starting points and will begin on my signal."

"At the same time, we will be taking off and have our mock battle around the ship's airspace." Akio told the pilots. "We will be using paint rounds instead of the rounds usually used in a dogfighting match, so your planes won't get heavily damaged."

"Uhh, Major," Johnny raised his hand prompting Akio to look at him. "Does this mean you'll be up in the air with us?"

"Yes," Akio nodded in confirmation. "I will be observing how well you do in this mock dogfight."

"How many rounds will we be using?" Fredrick asked, raising his hand.

"We will be using exactly 500 paint rounds per plane." Akio answered him simply.

'_Five hundred rounds?'_ Daisuke thought to himself. _'That means this is going to be a short dogfight.'_

"The mock battle will end once all planes have exhausted all 500 rounds." Akio informed them. "The plane with the least amount of paint on their plane will be declared the winner of this mock dogfight."

"Uh, Major," Toshiro raised his hand garnering Akio's attention. "What about the rest of us? What will we be doing?"

Akio then had a wicked grin on his face. "I'm glad you asked that." He then turned to the other boys behind the three pilots. "The rest of you…will be running 20 laps around the hangar!"

"EEEHHH!?" The boys all shouted in shock, causing the girls to giggle.

"Oh c'mon, seriously?" Toshiro complained, thinking that running 20 laps was more of a thing they did in gym class.

"Oh?" Akio raised an eyebrow with a clever smirk. "Then how about 30 laps?"

"Thirty!?" Toshiro shouted in shock.

"Do you want to make it 40?" Akio asked with an even wider smirk, prompting Toshiro to cover his mouth.

"N-no, sir!" He quickly replied, noticing the glares the others were giving him.

"Good," Akio said cheerfully, making Ami laugh slightly. "Then get moving, on the double!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" All but the pilots shouted as they began jogging around the hangar.

Akio and Ami then turned to their students and Akio said, "We will be starting right away, so gentlemen, to your planes!"

"Ladies, to your tanks!" Ami followed up as they both raised their arms to emphasize it.

"Yes sir/ma'am!" The students all shouted as they ran to their machines but Daisuke and Miho trailed behind.

"Good luck, Miho-chan!" Daisuke called out to her.

"You too, Daisuke-kun!" She replied with a smile.

* * *

**A/N:** Whew! That took a long time to finish! But I sure hope it's worth it. So then, don't forget to send a review! In the meantime, here's some WWII trivia for ya based on what I had mentioned earlier in the chapter!

The "Red Tails" as I had mentioned, is the nickname for the 332nd Fighter Group for the US Army Air Corps. in WWII. Also known as the Tuskegee Airmen based on the name of the airbase where they trained, they were the first all-black fighter squadron in the United States military. Because America was still racially segregated back then, blacks or African-Americans (if you want to be politically correct) faced a lot of discrimination because hardly anyone was willing to accept them into the military especially those from the southern states. Yet, despite this, the 332nd produced quite a few distinguished pilots during their combat missions and even shot down a couple of German jet fighters. But they were the only fighter squadron who never lost a single bomber crew the entire time they served as escorts for them. Not one! Their exploits produced not one, but two feature films depicting their actions during the war. In the recent decades, they had finally recieved the recognition they so richly deserved after serving our country.


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Well, here's chapter 3 folks. I gotta say, I am rather surprised at how many favorites and followers I'm getting for this fanfic. Considering there are only 10 fanfics, including mine in this entire category I expected to only get a few. But who cares, off to the story!

Disclaimer: See prologue

* * *

**Chapter 3: We're Having a Match**

Daisuke couldn't believe that he was in the seat of one of these again; it had been four years since he ever set foot in one and yet here he was, inside the cockpit of a fighter plane. The last time he was in one, was before his father had died and he had not stepped inside one since. He still flew in other planes, including a couple of airliners, but it was the first time in a long time since he was flying in a fighter and here he was now, trying to get used to the instruments and controls of the Ki-43 that the school had. He was about to go into his first mock dogfight since the last one he had with his father when he was 13 years old. To say he wasn't nervous would be a lie; he was quite nervous, but he allowed years of discipline and training his father gave him to kick in.

One of his father's first rules about flying was to never allow your fear to control how you fly. He had seen pilots grow nervous in planes before and have "crashed and burned" as the saying goes for pilots. Well…crashed, but not burned if anyone took that literally. His father taught him a few breathing techniques to calm himself before takeoff and he was glad he remembered them. But while his concern for his flying was justified, he was more concerned about a certain sandy-haired girl who was getting ready to enter her first mock fight in a tank since she left her old school.

He and the other pilots of Oorai had to load their own planes of the paint rounds given to them by their instructor, Akio Chouno. Normally the plane would be prepped by the ground crews who were responsible for maintenance and overall performance of the plane would load the guns of the plane, but because the other boys in the school's dogfighting class were busy doing thirty laps around the hangar, the pilots had to load the guns themselves. While Daisuke knew how to do it by heart, from all the times he had to load his father's plane, the other pilots knew very little how and were given a crash course in doing it from their instructor.

But seeing as they did need the ground crews, Major Akio decided to give the others a break and allow them to help, much to their relief. He had assigned the ground crews based on who found what plane or at the insistence of the pilot. Daisuke, of course, insisted that his friends Junichi Tomonaga, Toshiro Watanabe, and Goro Suzuki or "Goose" worked on his plane. So, here he was making the final checklists for his takeoff and noticed that the other pilots were doing the same.

"Be careful when you remove those blocks, you guys." He called to Toshiro and Junichi from his cockpit. "I don't want the prop to chop you to pieces."

"Thanks for the comfort!" Toshiro called back sarcastically while loading the last of the paint rounds into Daisuke's forward machine guns.

"You'd better get the engine started, Daisuke." Goose suggested after checking the said engine for any kinks before jumping off. "Major Akio will want you guys ready soon."

"Did you find any problems with the engine, Goose?" Daisuke asked him. "I wouldn't want it to sputter out on me while I'm in the air."

"I checked and double checked everything from the pistons to the fuel injectors," Goose said as he climbed up the wing to talk to Daisuke. "She should be good to go, just start it up."

Daisuke nodded and brought his hand to the engine starter; he made a silent prayer that it worked before flicking it on. It started low at first, but then a sound started to get louder and the propeller started to turn slowly before picking up speed. A few seconds later the distinct sounds of the plane's engine and propeller filled the area like a growl of a tiger; it brought a wide grin to Daisuke's face as it did.

"She's working!" Daisuke shouted over the sound of the engine before letting out a loud laugh and shouted even louder, "She's working!"

This made Junichi, Goose, and Toshiro cheer loudly, but their cheers were slightly drowned out by the plane's engine noise. The other ground crews soon followed as more airplane engines began to roar like a pride if lions across the tarmac. The smell of airplane exhaust began to fill the air as it was expelled from the muffler pipes on the side of the fuselages of the aircrafts. Two of each of the ground crews, including Toshiro and Junichi, grabbed the ropes that would help drag the stopping blocks that prevented the planes from moving the wheels of the landing gear and looked to their respective pilots to await the signal to pull them.

Daisuke took the headpiece containing his microphone and radio receiver and plugged it in before placing it on his head to listen for Major Akio's instructions. Before he did, he saw the girls leave with their tanks while waving goodbye from the hatches. Daisuke saw the Panzer IV slowly exit the hangar and saw Miho from the right hatch. As if sensing his eyes on her, she turned her head towards his plane, smiled, and waved at him. He smiled and waved back before giving her a thumb's up; the boys did the same as they watched the girls leave.

"_Alright gentlemen,"_ Major Akio's voice came in from his Mitsubishi F-2 model F-16 fighter over the radio. _"Now that the ladies are off, it's time for us to get going. You all have clearance for takeoff so as soon as you tell your ground crews to release your stopping blocks, close and lock your canopies and prepare for takeoff. Once you're in the air, you are to fly off in different directions until I give the signal to begin." _He instructed them. _"The fight ends once everyone is out of paint rounds; to acknowledge you are out you are to radio me and say 'ammo depleted' or something along the same lines, understood?"_

"Roger." The answer came from all four pilots, including Daisuke.

"_All right then; begin takeoff procedures."_

Daisuke poked his hand out to Junichi and Toshiro and waved them to clear out. They nodded and pulled the ropes holding the stopping blocks away from his plane's landing gear and his plane slowly began to taxi away from the hangar and towards the runway. The other ground crews followed his friends' example and did the same with the other planes. As soon as they began to move, Daisuke slid his cockpit canopy closed and locked it shut, muffling the sound of the propeller inside the cockpit. As he continued to taxi, he saw his friends waving at him and giving him thumbs up each as though wishing him good luck; he returned the gesture and made his way to the runway just as he saw the Major's fighter take off at high speed into the air.

'_This is it,'_ Daisuke thought to himself as he brought the wing flaps down. _'Time to re-polish my dogfighting skills.'_

He reached the end of the runway and slowly turned his plane towards the other end. With a heavy sigh, he eased the throttle forward. The sound of the engine grew louder and the propeller spun faster, almost becoming invisible at the speed it was moving and then his plane began to move down the runway at steadily increasing speeds. Daisuke felt the tail end of the plane start to lift off from the ground along with the landing gear. A moment later, his wheels were finally off the ground, and he was in the air.

From the ground, everyone in both the dogfighting and tankery classes watched as Daisuke's plane took off from the ground like a bird in awe. One girl in particular kept her eyes trained on the green painted fighter that took off first. The other girls in the Panzer IV also kept their eyes on it as its landing gear and flaps were slowly retracted into the wings.

"Good luck, Daisuke-kun." Miho whispered as the plane flew out of sight.

* * *

Minutes passed and Daisuke had already flown towards the west as soon as he had gained enough altitude to see the town warship was about the size his hand from how high up he was. He took a moment to look around him from the bubble canopy that protected him from the cold, fast moving air around his plane and couldn't help but feel amazed. All around him was a blue sky, clouds as far as the eye can see, and a vast blue ocean that was as vast as the sky above him. It was one of the things he missed about flying; no matter how many times he sees it from other airplanes, it still amazes him at how small everything seemed from how high up he was.

He was taken out of his amazement as his radio crackled and Major Akio's voice came through. _"Alright gentlemen, the girls have started their mock fight, so I think it's time you began yours. Remember, as soon as you are out of rounds you are out of the fight. Good hunting!"_

With that said, Daisuke eased his control yoke towards the opposite direction he just came from and began scanning the skies for anything that looked like either a Zero, a Wildcat, or an Fw-190.

* * *

Back at the hangar, the ground crews had decided to watch all the action from the same watchtower where Captain Ami Chouno, Major Akio Chouno's wife and the girls' instructor, watched the girls head for their starting points she had indicated to them on the map. She cheerfully greeted the boys just as they managed to reach the top of the tower, almost collapsing as they did so. She then turned her attention back to the girls just as they had all arrived at their designated starting points before taking a radio microphone out.

"Well it looks like you've all arrived at your starting points." She said to the girls as a whole. "Now the rules are simple: you must knock out all other tanks. In other words, shoot up a storm and take out your opponents. Got it?"

"_Kinda."_ Anzu Kadotani replied with a laugh.

"_That's not something I want to hear from you madam president."_ Yuzu Koyama's voice mumbled to her.

"Tankery starts with a bow and ends with a bow." Ami said into the radio. "All participants bow…" Though they couldn't see them from where they were, the boys could tell that they all complied with her instructions. "Now let the match begin!" She announced before switching frequencies and spoke into it again. "Major, the girls have begun their match; I believe the boys can start theirs."

"_Understood,"_ Major Akio's voice replied._ "I'll have them start right away."_

"Uh…Captain?" Goose timidly asked, gaining the woman's attention. "How will we watch the guys fight?"

Her reply to him was with a smile. "Not to worry, given how dogfights are, I'm sure they will start to end up flying down here sooner or later."

The boys all looked at each other in confusion before they made a collective jump as they heard a loud booming sound in the distance.

"What was that?!" Toshiro cried as he looked to where the sound came from, as did the others.

Ami smiled and brought her binoculars up to her eyes. "That was the sound of a tank's main gun firing."

* * *

Miho and her team had difficulty deciding who would do what inside their tank, so Saori suggested that they drew lots to decide. Since there were four of them, and the Panzer IV required a five-person crew, one of them would have to double as the radio operator while the others did their chosen duties. Miho was the loader, Saori was the commander, Yukari was the gunner (much to her delight), and Hana was the driver.

Their start to get their tank moving wasn't easy as Hana had difficulty moving the gear and easing off the clutch at the same time; in fact, before they left the hangar Hana accidentally put the tank in reverse and they almost hit the other end of the hangar before Hana corrected herself. Saori wasn't fairing any better as she didn't know how to instruct Hana on where to turn. Thankfully, Miho was there and she told Saori that tank commanders usually kick their drivers to the direction they want the tank to go. But Saori didn't like the idea of kicking Hana, but Hana insisted that she would do so; unfortunately this made Saori kick her hard and Hana asked her to do it softly next time.

Some of the other girls weren't having much luck either. The group of first years didn't know the first thing about operating a tank so they texted some of their friends to ask for help; after a few useless replies, one of their friends came through and told them how to do it. The girls operating the Type 89B were once part of the school's now defunct volleyball club and like the group of first years they knew nothing about tanks; their driver kept running into trees and they kept making volleyball terminologies as though it applied to tanks. The only teams who seemed to know what they were doing were the student council team in the 38 (t) and the team in the STuG III.

Thankfully, after much trial and error, each of the five teams made it to their designated starting points. Once they had done so, Captain Ami had given them the overall rules of the match. It was basically a free-for-all battle until only one tank remained. It sounded simple, but the fact that it was a free-for-all didn't mean that the other teams couldn't gang up on another team.

"Time to start attacking!" Yukari said, catching their team's attention. "You wanna practice shooting?"

"Uhh, we can't just start shooting randomly." Miho nervously protested, waving a hand to Yukari.

"You wanna take out the student council first?" Saori asked causing Miho to look at her questionably. Saori then crossed her arms and looked rather grumpy. "Our instructor turned out to be a woman, a married one at that." Her face contorted into a frown. "Then the boys' instructor shows up and he's a total hotty!" She then looked as though she was about to cry. "And the worst part is: he's married to _our_ instructor!"

"You're still going on about that?" Hana questioned her as though she were nuts.

Saori then turned to Miho with a grin. "I can make the decisions here, right? I'm the tank commander."

"Uh…yeah." Miho nodded uncertainly.

Saori then winked at her and said, "Besides, we owe them for dragging you and Daisuke into this when you didn't want to." This made Miho gasp and turn away with a blush, making Saori grin in triumph. She then turned towards the front of the tank and brought her hand out. "Right then, let's head to where the student council's team is!" She then turned back to Miho with an uncertain smile. "Where exactly is that, by the way?"

But before Miho could make any sort of response…

**BOOM!**

A loud explosion rocked their tank making them all scream in surprise.

"What was that!?" Saori shouted while holding onto he rim of the top hatch.

Miho opened her hatch and looked around to see where the explosion came from. Sure enough, there was a small impact crater just inches away from their rear treads still smoking from impact. The crater was small enough to tell Miho that it came from a tank with a 57mm cannon shell; and there were only one tank among them that had that kind of ammunition. After another look around, she saw where the shot had come from. The Type 89B was a few meters away with its smoking main gun aimed right at them!

Inside the said tank, the girls of the former volleyball club were rather dumbstruck at the sound of the tank's main cannon.

"That was loud." Shinobu Kawashini, the team's driver commented.

"You could feel it in the air." Taeko Kondou, the team's radio operator agreed.

"I want to hit a spike like that." Akebi Sasaki, the team's gunner said, still gaping at the shot she made.

While they were talking, Noriko Isobe, the team's loader and commander had reloaded the main gun with another shell and said, "We'll go after the A team in the Panzer IV first!"

"I'm scared, let's get the hell out of here!" Saori cried out in fear.

As if to answer her pleas, Hana switched gears and pressed down on the gas pedal and their tank drove off just barely avoiding another shell from the Type 89B as it fired again. Wanting to see around them, Saori poked her head out of the top hatch and saw something that caused her stomach to turn. In front of them was a fork in the road…with the STuG III heading towards them from the left side of the fork aiming its cannon right at them.

* * *

Inside the StuG, the commander of the team, who dressed with an old German army officer's cap and trench coat, was looking through the tank's periscope directly at the Panzer IV. Her name was Satoko Matsumoto, but she went by the nickname Erwin after Erwin Rommel. Next to her, the team's loader Takako Suzuki, or Caesar as she preferred to be known as, had just loaded their first shell into the main gun. If one were to ask if she and Goose were related due to them having the same last name, they would deny it of course since Suzuki was a very common surname in Japan. The Team's driver, a bespectacled girl named Takeko Nogami or Oryou as she referred to herself as, was keeping the tank's chassis aimed at the Panzer IV as it came into view. The team's gunner, Kiyomi Sugimiya or Saemonza as she was nicknamed, grinned as she looked through the scope at her target.

"There's our prey!" Caesar exclaimed joyfully.

"O Great God of Arms, I beseech your aid against my enemy." Oryou said in a prayer.

Earlier they had heard the Type 89B and spotted it attacking the Panzer IV. They agreed to take it out first with them silently and now their target was in their sights just ripe for the picking.

Inside the Panzer IV, Hana was growing nervous herself.

"What should I do?" She asked Saori, not turning her eyes away from the opening in front of her.

"They've got us trapped!" Saori cried and then pointed to the right side of the fork. "Let's go that way!"

"I can't hear you!" Hana cried before she felt Saori kick her right shoulder signaling her to turn right.

"Take the right fork!"

Hana did so and the tank took the turn just as two more cannon shells were fired at them. Miho was still looking ahead from her hatch, wincing as the shells kicked up dirt and dust from their impact. She then saw something in front of them; or rather, someone! There was another female student lying down by a tree stump with a book covering their face as though they were sleeping.

A mixture of fear and confusion ran through Miho's mind as she wondered where this student came from and what were they doing in the middle of the meadow where they were having their mock battle? But that didn't matter at the moment, right now Miho was more concerned about her safety.

"Look out!" She cried out, hoping the girl heard her.

* * *

Back in the skies, Daisuke had been flying around for almost five minutes. He had been swiveling his head around, scanning the sky for anything that looks remotely like an airplane with a propeller engine. So far, no such luck.

'_Okay,'_ Daisuke thought to himself as he continued to look around while keeping an eye on his instruments. _'Depending on who I see first will be my target, the same thing applies to them if they see me. The question is, who will it be?' _His face contorted into a scowl as he already had one person in mind. _'Personally, I hope it's Sugita-kaichou; I owe him for dragging me and Miho into this and he owes me answers.'_ Daisuke then thought back to that day when he and Miho were called to the student council room and remembered how they pressured the two of them into taking the Tankery and Dogfighting classes when neither of them wanted to; he remembered the conversation he had after they had dismissed them when he decided to stay behind and question them.

* * *

_Flashback_

"_You comin' Daisuke?" Toshiro had asked him as they left the room._

"_You guys go on ahead," Daisuke answered him, not bothering to look back. "I'll catch up with you later."_

"_Okay man," Toshiro said with a nod before leaving and closing the door._

_The fact that he was staying behind confused the student council as Yoshi asked him, "Is there something else Nishizawa-kun?"_

_Daisuke narrowed his eyes at them. "I told you that I wanted answers, and I am going to get them."_

_Anzu quirked her eyebrow at him. "And what answers would that be, Nishizawa-kun?"_

"_Why did you force us into this?" Daisuke said with a determined look on his face. "I'm sure there are other people you could've hired to teach everyone into these classes, but why were you so adamant about me and Miho joining those classes?"_

"_We simply needed yours and Nishizumi-chan's experience in those classes." Yoshi shrugged dismissively. "Isn't that reason enough?"_

"_The hell it isn't!" Daisuke snapped, his face scowling at them ignoring Hayao and Yuzu jumping in surprise. "I told you that neither of us wanted to join these classes and then you go and blackmail us with the threat of expulsion if we didn't agree! I haven't had a dogfight in a long time so my experience isn't that great anymore, and I know you have gone through my records to look up my heritage and I doubt _that_ is the reason for this! I only agreed to join for Miho's sake, not yours!" His eyes narrowed into slits as he glared at them defiantly. "So I ask again, why?"_

"_Our reasons are our own concern, Nishizawa-san." Momo answered him plainly, unaffected by his tone._

"_All you need to know is what we just told you." Takeo added in the same tone as Mako._

"_That's not good enough!" Daisuke argued again._

"_I would suggest you watch your tone, Nishizawa." Yoshi warned him with a serious look, dropping the 'kun' suffix he had put on Daisuke's last name with a level tone. "If you continue to act in this manner we _will_ put you on suspension."_

_Daisuke gritted his teeth and growled silently, his fist shaking at his side. He took a deep breath to calm himself slightly before looking back at them, his scowl not leaving his face._

"_I will get my answers from you one way or another," He warned them in a low voice. "Mark my words, I _will_ get them."_ _With that he turned around and left with a light slam of the door._

_End Flashback_

* * *

Needless to say, the student council had grown weary of him ever since then. But Daisuke had decided to play it cool for now and not seek his answers for the time being. But that didn't mean he didn't want to let out his frustration on one of them; and since Yoshi was piloting the Zero, he had his chance to do so. That is, if he could find it.

'_Why were they so desperate to have me and Miho-chan join the Tankery and Dogfighting classes?'_ He asked to himself, turning his attention in front of him. _'Could it have something to do with what Koyama-fuku Kaichou said?'_

PING! PING! PING!

He was taken out of his thoughts as he felt his plane jolt from the sudden impact of something hitting it. Turning his head and saw fresh splotches of black paint on the right wing oozing from having been splattered onto it. He quickly swiveled his head to look at his seven o'clock and saw the distinct outline of a Focke-Wulf Fw-190 on his tail. It was Fredrick Goering, he had spotted Daisuke and fired a burst from his MG 131 machine guns at him while he was distracted and landed a couple of hits on his wing.

Fredrick smirked from inside his cockpit as he placed his crosshairs over his target.

"You should be paying more attention to your surroundings, Herr Nishizawa." He taunted his opponent as he fired another burst.

Daisuke immediately pulled his stick to the right and turned into Fredrick's attack, just barely avoiding the tracers that zoomed past his plane. Fredrick gave chase, continuing to get a bead on him. Daisuke jinked is plane hard left, pulled back on the throttle, and turned his rudder so that his plane would turn left sharply. The action worked as his plane sharply spun left just as Fredrick fired another burst. His Hayabusa now faced the Fw-190 and Daisuke saw that it was now in his sights. Pressing the trigger on his control stick, he fired a burst from his own machine guns just mounted behind the propeller.

Tracers screamed across the sky and struck the underside of Fredrick's plane leaving behind splotches of green paint where his paint rounds impacted. But before Daisuke could revel in this victory, more tracers zoomed past his cockpit from the right. Looking to where they came from, he saw Johnny Doolittle's F4F Wildcat streaking towards him, firing another burst from two of his six .50 Caliber machine guns at him. Daisuke turned again to the right into Johnny's attack; now both planes were head to head and firing off bursts from their weapons at each other. Daisuke wasn't sure if any of his rounds hit, but he knew that the Wildcat's shots struck his plane or at least one of them did as a few tiny splotches of blue paint splattered against his windshield. The round must have impacted in the middle of his propeller. But Daisuke adjusted his aim and fired again, this time landing a clean hit across the F4F's fuselage right before the two planes zoomed past each other.

Daisuke craned his head back to follow Johnny, but spotted Fredrick turning to get on his tail again. Looking ahead to change direction, Daisuke spotted a glimmer of white ahead of him and the outline of an A6M Zero flying at him and firing a burst from its 7.7mm machine guns. It was Yoshi, he must have spotted the furball and decided to join in. Daisuke came to the distinct conclusion that he had hoped would not happen.

'_They're all going for me!'_

* * *

Back on the ship, Miho had just warned the girl in front of their tank. To her surprise, the girl got up and then _jumped_ onto the tank and tripping to look at them. Miho was again surprised as she recognized the girl from earlier that morning. While it was true, she had overslept that morning and that was part of the reason why she was late; she had another reason for being late. On her way to school, she had come across this girl as she was barely walking towards school herself and grumbling something about life being a waste.

"You're the girl from this morning…" Miho said as the top hatch opened for Saori to see who had climbed up on their tank.

"Oh, it's Mako." Saori said, a little shocked to see the girl.

"Saori." The girl now known as Mako said plainly.

"Are you two friends?" Miho asked her, looking in between the two girls.

"Yeah," Saori answered with a nod. "We've known each other for a while." She then turned to Mako with a frown. "What are you doing out here anyway? We're in the middle of class."

"I know." Mako said making Saori sigh in frustration.

Just then another shell struck the ground behind their tank, making the three of them shield themselves instinctively.

Miho then turned to her and said quickly, "It's dangerous out here, so get inside!"

With that, the three of them entered the tank and closed their respective hatches. Once inside, Mako sat down close to Yukari's lap and then allowed her head to list backwards.

"There's not much oxygen in here…" She said weakly, almost looking like she was about to pass out.

"Are you okay?" Yukari asked worriedly at the girl she was holding.

"Mako has low blood pressure." Saori told her.

"She didn't seem to be doing very well this morning, either." Miho said with a sheepish smile.

"Huh? You met her?" Saori asked in surprise and Miho answered with a nod. "So that's why you were late."

Mako then turned her eyes to Miho and asked tonelessly, "So, where's that boyfriend of yours?"

Miho gasped and waved her hands at Mako with a blush that threatened to cover her whole body. "H-he's not my boyfriend!"

"Ooh? A boyfriend?" Saori echoed with a catlike grin. "Who is it, is it Daisuke?"

"Ahh!" Miho looked at Saori with wide eyes and her blush grew even deeper, making Saori's grin even wider.

"I knew it!" Saori called in triumph, but her triumph didn't last as a couple of more shots struck around them making her cover her ears and yell, "I've had enough! What should we do!?"

Miho opened her hatch and looked out ahead of them. They were coming up to a bridge suspended across a wide and deep creek. While there were wooden planks underneath it, there were some metallic tracks for tanks to drive across. But the bridge was also very narrow, one wrong move and the bridge would collapse, with them on it. Miho knew what she had to do.

"Stop the tank!" Miho called just as they came right up to the bridge itself. She then hopped out of the bridge and ran up to the bridge. The others, minus Mako, popped their heads out of their own hatches and watched her.

"It's dangerous to be out here right now!" Yukari warned her.

"We've got time before they fire another round, so I'll be fine!" Miho reassured her as she observed the bridge.

It was built with steel girders and steel cables. It was sectioned so that wind could pass through it and not cause any trouble. But as stated, if not properly guided, the bridge would be the end of them. So Miho ran out onto the bridge and turned towards the Panzer.

"Move forward, but move slowly!" Miho called out, and gestured Hana with her hands.

Hana to slowly eased the tank onto the bridge and followed Miho's gestures. But the gestures seemed to confuse Hana as they came close to the middle of the bridge. She had difficulty steering the tank and she ended up turning towards one of the suspension cables and struck it. The tank's treads continued to spin, causing sparks to fly out before they cut the cable and the bridge began to list with the weight of the tank, making the girls cry out in fear.

"We're gonna fall!" Hana cried fearfully, trying to regain control.

"I hate this!" Saori cried, desperately holding onto the rim of the top hatch.

Behind them, the StuG III had caught up and remained off the bridge, aiming its cannon right at the rear of the Panzer.

"Fire!"

The StuG fired and the shell struck the Panzer IV, pushing it out of the way of where the cut cable was, inadvertently saving it and Miho's team from falling. The girls cried out in surprise as the round hit them, making them duck back into the tank. When it was over, Saori and Yukari poked their heads out but then Saori saw something that made her blood cold.

"Isuzu-dono!" Yukari cried as she too saw her.

"Hana, are you alright!?" Saori cried as she saw her friend with her head tilted to the side.

The impact had caused Hana to bump her head onto the tank's armor knocking her out.

"Our driver is knocked out!" Yukari called as Miho ran back up to the tank. "We're sitting ducks!"

* * *

Daisuke grunted as he made another sharp turn to avoid another burst of gunfire from one of his opponents behind him. He didn't know how it happened, but just after Yoshi had joined the fray, all three of the other Oorai planes had gotten on his tail, putting Daisuke on the defensive. A few rounds from Yoshi's machine guns did hit his plane's left wing so now his plane had splotches of blue, black, and white paint all over. If not for his adrenaline, Daisuke would be having paint all over the plane's fuselage and cockpit.

He had made all kinds of crazy maneuvers to get them off his tail, from a split S, to barrel rolls, to even the stunt he had pulled earlier. But they were stubborn, but they also knew that they had limited amount of bullets so they only fired short bursts so that they wouldn't run out so quickly. Daisuke had only fired three bursts at them so far and now he was down to 100 rounds in each of his two machine guns. The others, however, had to be running low on bullets faster than him since they were the aggressors.

"I've got no choice," He said to himself, gripping his control stick tightly. "I've gotta take this fight close to the deck!" With that, he pushed the stick forward and his plane dove towards the ship with the other three planes right behind him.

He jinked from side to side so that if they fired more shots at him, he wouldn't give them the benefit of an easy target. He was lucky he did so, Yoshi had fired another burst from his machine guns as they continued their descent. The deck of the school warship grew bigger as his altimeter ticked away at his altitude. He just had to time this right, otherwise he would crash.

* * *

From the watchtower, the boys had observed the whole mock fight the girls were having. From the opening shots to the point where Miho's Panzer had reached the bridge. Toshiro, Junichi, and Goose had worried looks on their face as they continued to watch.

"Oh man, this is bad!" Toshiro shouted gripping his hair. "They're both going after Miho's team! They're not even bothering with each other!"

"I agree," Junichi said calmly, but still looking very worried. "But I'm more concerned about that bridge."

"Yeah," Goose nodded, gripping the railing tightly. "If they don't get off of it soon they might not be able to make it."

"I don't think they will be able to, Suzuki-kun." Captain Ami said, getting everyone's attention. "From the looks of it, the 38 (t) and the M3 will both be joining the attack soon from the other side of the bridge."

"That's not fair!" Toshiro called out angrily. "Four against one? I mean, c'mon!"

"I didn't say that no one could team up against another tank, did I?" Ami chided him playfully.

"Hey, does anyone hear that?" One of the other boys said, looking around.

"Hear what?" Another asked him, but then they quieted down to listen.

From the distance it sounded like low buzzing sound; but it grew louder as though it were getting closer. They could also hear the distinct sound of something heavy coming down from the sky mixing in with the buzzing. They all jumped as Ami's radio crackled to life.

"_Captain Ami, come in."_ Major Akio's voice said, prompting her to grab her microphone.

"Go ahead, Major." She said into the mic.

"_Eyes on the sky,"_ He replied in a warning. _"The boys are coming down to the deck with Nishizawa leading the pack."_

"What does that mean?" Hayao asked, unfamiliar with terms like that.

"It means that Daisuke is diving down towards the ship with the others on his tail." Goose clarified, turning his attention towards the sky with a hand over his eyes; the other boys soon followed.

Suddenly, Toshiro stopped looking and pointed towards something. "There!"

Everyone, including Captain Ami looked to where Toshiro was pointing and saw a group of specks in the distance. Ami brought her binoculars up and confirmed her husband's words. Daisuke's Hayabusa was being chased towards the ship with the Wildcat, the Fw-190, and the Zero hot on his tail.

* * *

Daisuke knew it was now or never, because if he didn't pull up he would crash into the ground of the ship. So with that he pulled back on the stick and his plane began to level itself. The G forces pushed Daisuke into his seat, almost causing him to blackout from the blood leaving his head. But after a few seconds, his plane leveled out and he was now several meters above the ground zooming past the trees of the school's forest. As soon as the blood began to rush back to his head, Daisuke looked behind him and saw that the other planes had also pulled up, albeit higher than him. The Zero and the Fw-190 fired another burst each at him, but Daisuke barrel rolled to avoid the shots before straightening out and flying towards the very same creek Miho and the others were fighting at.

* * *

The girls had managed to pull Hana out of the driver's seat and into the radio operator's seat as gently as possible. It wasn't easy, but they managed to do it without hurting her. But now they had another problem; with Hana knocked out they didn't have a driver and that made them an easy target for the other tanks. But they didn't realize that Mako was looking at the driver's seat quite intently.

"I'm really bad at driving a tank," Miho said with a sigh. "But I've got to do it."

But before she could get to the driver's seat, the tank suddenly moved causing the girls to jump in surprise. The tank then backed up away from where it had cut some of the support cables and straightens itself out on the bridge. The girls looked to see who was driving and to their surprise it was Mako. She was in the driver's seat driving the tank and reading the instruction manual at the same time.

"Mako, you can drive?" Saori asked her eyes wide in surprise.

"I just learned now." Mako answered plainly.

"Just now!?" Yukari asked in surprise.

"There's a reason she's top of the class." Saori commented with a relieved smile.

The tank continued to reverse just as the Type 89B fired its machine gun at their tank. The bullets simply ricocheted off the armor harmlessly. The StuG III and the Type 89B had not given up their efforts to take them down. But up ahead of them, the M3 Lee and the 38 (t) were traveling along the road that led to the bridge they were on. Like the other two teams, they agreed silently to take out the Panzer IV first.

"We're going backwards!" Saori cried out.

"I know." Mako replied.

Mako then adjusted the tank's drive and the tank began to move forward again, just as both the StuG and the Type 89 fired their cannons again and hit the bridge in front of them creating a smokescreen in front of the Panzer IV. The impact shook the tank a little and it in turned woke Hana up with a jolt.

"Are you okay?" Miho asked her in concern.

"Yes," Hana answered and then looked down shamefully. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Miho shook her head. "Just rest for a while." She then turned to Yukari. "Akiyama-san, rotate the turret."

"You got it!" Yukari replied as she began to rotate the tank's main gun towards the StuG III since it was the bigger threat.

"Hurry up and rotate it!" Saori cried frightfully as she watched from one of the observation holes near the top hatch. She then looked back at Yukari and said, "Shoot them before they shoot us!"

"Right!" Yukari answered just as the turret was aimed perfectly at the StuG.

"Prepare to fire!" Miho called out, prompting Mako to stop the tank. After a few tense moments, Miho then gave the order. "Fire!"

Yukari pulled the trigger and with a loud "thud" the main cannon for their Panzer fired the pre-loaded shell that they had loaded just before the match started. The recoil mechanism pulled back and expelled the shell casing harmlessly behind them. The shell they fired flew straight and true and struck the StuG III just inches to the right of the barrel of its main gun. The impact was strong enough that it damaged the tank destroyer to the point where a small hatch containing a white flag popped out indicating that it was out of the match. Smoke from the shot had filled the inside of the tank leaving the smell of gunpowder in their noses. But at the moment, the girls, minus Miho, were gobsmacked from what had just happened; even Mako was now wide eyed for the first time since Miho had met her.

"Wow…" Saori said in amazement while Miho reloaded the gun with another shell.

"My ears are ringing." Yukari said in shock.

"That actually felt…good." Hana said while hugging her chest with a twinge of pink coloring her cheeks.

* * *

From the watchtower, the boys had seen the shot as well and were quite surprised that the Panzer IV scored the first kill with the first shot it actually fired during the whole match. They were quite surprised that after Daisuke had brought the dogfight down towards the ground and were now flying towards the fight the girls were having with the other three planes firing their weapons at him. They then turned their attention back to the girls and were surprised that the Panzer IV had gotten back on its feet, so to speak, and finally return fire against the StuG III and take it out with just one shot.

"A good hit," Ami said watching through her binoculars. "C Team is out of the match!"

"Alright!" Toshiro cheered as he and Goose shared a high five from their victory. "One shot one kill baby!"

Junichi, however, was not celebrating. "Don't start cheering too soon; they still have the other tanks to deal with."

Back with the girls, Miho turned to Yukari and said, "We'll take out the Type 89 next."

"Right!" Yukari nodded to her before returning to the sights of the main gun and readjusted her aim.

In the Type 89, the volleyball girls were starting to panic.

"They're turning around!" Noriko shouted. "Formation B!"

"Right!" The rest of her team answered her and fired another round towards the Panzer IV.

But the round flew harmlessly above the Panzer and their target returned fire. The shot hit dead center of the Type 89's front armor shaking the girls inside around. The damage was enough that a white flag similar to the one that popped out of the StuG III popped out indicating it was unable to continue fighting. On the other side of the bridge the 38 (t) and the M3 Lee had just arrived and were now training their weapons on Miho's tank. They didn't escape Saori's notice as she saw the tanks coming.

"Here come the others!" She gasped, prompting Yukari to turn the tank's turret at them.

From inside the 38 (t), Momo Kawashima was grinning menacingly as she had the tank's sights aimed straight at the Panzer IV.

"Fufufu…This is where you die." She said gleefully as she kept her sights set on her target.

A few seconds later, both tanks fired at the same time. But while the 38 (t)'s shot missed and cut another support cable, the Panzer's shot struck home and took the 38 (t) out, prompting it's surrender flag to pop out. Inside the same tank, only Momo was shaken up from the hit, but all three of the girls' student council girls were now dirty from the impact.

"Well, they got us." Anzu said nonchalantly with her hands folded behind her head.

"Momo-chan, you had to miss didn't you?" Yuzu said with a sheepish smile to the said girl, who was fuming from their loss.

"Don't call me 'Momo-chan!'" She yelled, shaking her fists.

Inside the M3 Lee, the first year girls had just witnessed Miho's tank take out all three of the other tanks with one shot each.

"Nishizumi-san is strong!"

"Let's run away!"

"Yeah!"

They tried turning their tank, but the treads suddenly got stuck in a patch of mud. The team's driver, Karina Sakaguchi sped the tank's treads, but it only made it sink deeper into the mud patch. It covered the right tread in so much mud that it jammed and snapped in half and overheated the engine, prompting the white flag of their tank to pop out. With that, all four of the other tanks were defeated, leaving only the Panzer IV still standing.

"_D Team, M3," _Ami's voice over the radio announced. _"E Team, 38 (t), B Team, Type 89B, C Team, StuG III, all are unable to fight. The A Team in the Panzer IV wins!"_

The girls all opened their hatches and looked out to inspect their work.

"We…we won?" Saori said, blinking her eyes in surprise.

"It looks that way…" Hana said in the same tone.

"Yeah!" Yukari shouted as she wrapped a surprised Miho in a bone crushing hug. "Nishizumi-dono got us here!"

"_All teams are to remain in their tanks for the time being."_ Ami said causing everyone in the tanks to blink in confusion. _"The boys' fighter planes are currently heading in your direction with the Zero, the Fw-190, and the Wildcat with their weapons firing at the Hayabusa."_

"What?" Saori cried in shock. "You mean they're ganging up on Daisuke just as the others ganged up on us!?"

"I hear them…" Mako said suddenly, prompting the girls to be quiet.

Sure enough they heard the distinct sound of airplane engines coming towards them along with the sound of gunfire. All tank crews turned their attention to the left of the bridge and sure enough, they saw them. All four of the Oorai planes were flying towards them with the Ki-43 flown by Daisuke leading them with the A6M Zero, the F4F Wildcat, the Fw-190 all in hot pursuit and each of them firing bursts from their machine guns at him.

"Back in the tank!" Miho cried prompting the girls the duck back into their tank just as a few of the paint rounds struck the bridge coating splotches of blue, white, and black paint all over it.

Seconds later, the Ki-43 zoomed just meters above the bridge causing it to sway slightly from the tailwind making the girls inside the Panzer to scream in surprise. The other three planes zoomed after just over the other tanks creating the same wind to blow past the girls and it even knocked Erwin's hat to fly off. After it was all over, Momo suddenly popped out of the top hatch of the 38 (t) and shook her fist at them.

"HEY YA LOUSY FIGHTER JOCKS," She shouted at them. "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE FLYING!"

* * *

Daisuke grunted as he continued to pull all the stops to avoid more gunfire from the other planes. He had managed to fly low enough that he could see some of the action below, but managed to stay far away enough to see Miho's tank take out the last of the tanks just as the others had seen him. When he saw the bullets from the other planes fly past him and hit the bridge he was flying towards, Daisuke immediately pulled up so that they couldn't fire at them again. But this was starting to frustrate him.

"C'mon," He scowled at the planes behind him. "They've got to run out of ammo _some time!"_

Inside their planes, Yoshi, Fredrick, and Johnny were all training their weapons on Daisuke's plane one last time, hoping to end the fight once and for all.

"I've got you now, Herr Nishizawa." Fredrick grinned as he pulled the trigger for his weapons.

"Sorry, pal, nothing personal." Johnny apologized as he pulled the trigger for his machine guns.

"This is it for you, Nishizawa-kun." Yoshi said with a grin as he pressed his firing trigger.

But nothing happened with either plane. Surprised, all three of them tried firing again, but nothing was coming out. They had wasted all of their bullets in giving chase to Daisuke.

"NOW!" Daisuke shouted as he suddenly opened up his plane's brakes, pulled back on the throttle lowering his speed, and pulled back allowing him to climb slightly just as the other planes zoomed past him. He then punched his speed back up, closed the brakes, and aimed his plane at the three pursuers and fired.

The paint bullets from his plane shot out and zoomed at all three planes as he adjusted his plane so that they would hit them all. Sure enough, green splotches of paint began to coat all three aircraft especially the Zero. Daisuke just kept firing until all remaining bullets in his plane had been fired. When it was all over, almost all four planes were just covered in different coats of paint, but the color that seemed to be the most dominant was green.

Daisuke then brought his radio to his mouth and said, "Ki-43, ammo depleted."

"_Fw-190, ammunition depleted."_ Fredrick followed in a disappointed tone.

"_F4F Wildcat, ammo depleted."_ Johnny said tonelessly.

"_A6M Zero, ammo depleted."_ Yoshi added with a more dismissive tone.

"_Confirmed,"_ Major Akio's voice sounded over the radio. _"All aircraft return to base."_

* * *

Almost a half hour later, all the girls were told to leave their tanks and return to the hangar just as the boys landed their planes. Then they taxied up to the hangar, they were greeted by their respective teams commenting them on their flying. But Daisuke was greeted with Toshiro grabbing him in a headlock and giving him a noogie while Goose patted him on the back and Junichi simply said congratulations to him. They then met with Miho's team and were introduced to Mako, whose full name was Mako Reizei; she was the girl Miho was dragging to the school that morning and had asked if he was Miho's boyfriend, which they both denied. They were all then told to line up just as Major Akio had arrived and stood in front of the classes with Captain Ami.

"Everyone, you did a good job! Very nice!" Ami said with giving them all a thumb's up.

"And gentlemen, you all did quite well in that dogfight." Akio said giving them a grin of his own. "I've seen plenty of pilots pull some crazy stunts, but that was just fantastic."

"We couldn't have asked more of you since you all moved and shot so well on your first try." Ami said to all of them before turning to Daisuke, and Miho's team. "Especially Team A and Nishizawa-kun." Her comment took them by surprise. "Good job, all of you." Everyone in Miho's team but her and Daisuke seemed to bask in the praise from their instructor.

"All you need to do now is practice your flying, your moving, and your shooting every day." Akio said to them all. "If there's something you don't know, don't hesitate to send us an e-mail.

"Everyone, bow!" Anzu called to them.

"Thank you so much!" All of the students said with a bow, which their instructors returned with a salute.

"Dismissed!" Momo called out and the students began to disperse.

* * *

As the students began to leave, Ami and Akio couldn't help but watch Daisuke and Miho in particular. Akio couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness when he thought about Daisuke's father, Nobusuke, and the day he died. The fact that his son resembled him quite well made him think that he was looking at a ghost. But he also noticed how he was around a certain tank girl and it reminded him somewhat of how he and Ami were when they were younger.

"Isn't it a strange coincidence," He said gaining his wife's attention. "The fact that your instructor's youngest daughter and my former teammate's son are at the same school?"

"Mmm…" Ami mused with a nod. "It is, but I think it's more than that." This caused Akio to look at her and she turned to him with a smile. "I think it might be fate that those two are here."

* * *

Miho, Saori, Hana, Yukari, Daisuke, Toshiro, Junichi, and Goose had opted to go to the local bathhouse so that they could clean up from the sweat they worked up from their classes earlier that day. They even invited Mako to join them, and to even Saori's surprise she agreed. Of course, being a bathhouse the two bath locations were separated so that both genders can have their own respective privacy. The bathhouse itself was massive with individual baths to a large hot spring. It had fountains shaped like anglerfishes and a closed off shower area so that those who come to the bathhouse can wash up before entering the bath.

"Sigh…That was more exciting than a guy telling you he loves you for the first time." Saori sighed in content, stretching her arms above her head.

"A guy has told you that he loved you?" Hana said in confusion.

"My dad always tells me that he loves me." Saori replied snootily.

"He sounds like a nice dad." Miho commented with a smile.

Hana then gained an evil glint and looked at Miho coyly. "Of course, I don't think I could compete with you Miporin."

"Huh?" Miho blinked.

"Don't be shy," Saori pressed, getting uncomfortably close to Miho. "Mako did say that Daisuke was your boyfriend," Miho's face went immediately red at that. "Is it true?"

"N-no! Daisuke-kun's not my boyfriend!" She denied, waving her hands frantically.

"But you want him to be, right?" Saori said slyly, making Miho gasp and her grin to widen. "I knew it!"

"S-Saori-san…"

Hana decided to change the subject quickly before Saori got any further, much to Miho's relief. "Anyway, I wasn't sure how things would turn out at first, but it was really exciting." She said with a delighted smile.

"Yeah, it was great!" Yukari pumped her fists.

"Yeah," Saori said closing her eyes in content. "But you know, I think Miho should be the commander."

"Huh?" Miho reeled back in surprise when Saori said that.

"We don't know much about tanks…" Hana said, bringing a finger to her chin in contemplation.

"And Nishizumi-dono sure knows what she's doing too." Yukari agreed easily.

"I-I do?" Miho was just surprised that they were all willing to allow her to be tank commander after everything. But she looked down dejectedly and said, "But I'm not that…"

"Please, take care of us…" Hana said with a slight bow to her.

"Please!"

"Please, take care of us, Nishizumi-dono."

Miho was silent for a moment before she gained a determined look and said, "R-right! I'll do it!" This brought a smile to everyone's faces.

"How else do you think we should split things up?" Hana asked now that she thought about it.

"Well, what do you think I'm good at?" Saori pointed to herself.

"Well…You can get along with just about anyone," Miho said looking at her friend. "So maybe you can be our radio operator?"

"That sounds nice!" Saori nodded in agreement. "I can type texts on my phone really fast too."

"I don't think that will do any good here…" Hana commented with a slight frown making Saori pout.

"So who else should do what…?" Miho said pondering what the other girls could do.

"Um, could I please operate the turret?" Hana suddenly blurted out surprising the others. She then shifted nervously in the water. "I haven't been able to forget that incredible feeling that made me go numb. Also, I think I'll become a stronger girl if I do it."

"In that case," Miho said with a smile. "You can work the turret."

"Then that makes me the operator!" Yukari declared, pumping her fist.

"That leaves us with only a driver now…" Miho mused as she tried to think of someone to drive the tank, but her thoughts were interrupted as the sound of water moving distracted her and the others to look and notice that Mako was getting out of the water and wrapping a towel around her body.

"Hey Mako," Saori indicated her. "You can drive our tank for us!"

Mako looked at them with her usual deadpan look and said, "I already took up calligraphy."

"Aww…"

"You could really help us our Reizei-san!" Miho pleaded to her.

"Please Reizei-san?" Hana begged.

"Your driving was brilliant!" Yukari commented, hoping that it would convince her.

"Sorry, not happening." Mako said, as she opened the door to the changing room and left.

But before she could go any further, Saori yelled, "Mako! You're not gaining points because you're late all the time! If you take Tankery you'll get all kinds of extra credit and stuff! You'll get held back!"

After a few seconds, the door reopened and Mako was staring at them with almost a glare at Saori before saying, "Fine…I'll do it. I still have to repay Nishizumi-san after all."

The girls were ecstatic at this but Saori murmured, "You just want the extra credit points."

"I'm just repaying a debt." Mako retorted.

"We have our five teammates!" Hana declared happily.

"Thanks for joining us!" Yukari said with a salute which Mako returned with a bow.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the other side where the boys were bathing, Daisuke and the others could help but look at the wall that separated them and the girls. They had heard the girls' voices, especially Saori's when they were talking. Needless to say they were curious as to what the girls were talking about.

"Any idea what they're doing in there?" Goose asked, sitting next to Toshiro, who just shrugged.

"Who knows," He said. "Girls talk a lot when they're in private."

"Well, it certainly is not our business to eavesdrop." Junichi said with his own shrug, seeing as how he didn't have his glasses on to adjust and neither did Goose.

Toshiro then had a leery grin on his face and looked at the others. "Hey, wanna take a peak and see what they're talking about?" His question was answered when Daisuke hit his head with his fist. "Ow!"

"Absolutely not!" Daisuke shouted at him, clenching his fist at Toshiro.

"I am a gentleman," Junichi reprimanded him. "I do not participate in such vulgar activities!"

"I kinda want all my body parts intact Toshiro-san." Goose said with a nervous laugh.

"Party poopers…" Toshiro grumbled before slumping into the water.

While the boys' bathhouse wasn't as grand and fancy like the girls' bath, it was still bigger than the norm and had enough room to fit several men at once. Daisuke had to admit, he actually liked this bathhouse better than the few he's been to in his youth. It was certainly bigger and had much more comfortable water. Plus he was glad to get a bath after that dogfight he participated in. Something that intense did build up quite a sweat.

"Say Daisuke," Toshiro caught the attention of his friend. "That was some pretty cool flying up there."

"I'll say!" Goose joined in. "You flew like you were born to up there!"

"Oh, thanks guys." Daisuke thanked them.

"I'm serious, Daisuke." Toshiro said again, wrapping his arm around Daisuke and giving him a noogie, much to Daisuke's protests. "You were awesome up there!"

"That last maneuver you did was quite impressive." Junichi finally said with an impressed smile. "Where did you learn that?"

At this Daisuke finally pried himself free from Toshiro's grip and rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Actually, I kinda learned it from a movie I saw when I was a kid."

The boys all laughed at this one before Junichi finally stopped and looked at them. "Well, now that we've established who our pilot is, what will happen to the three of us?" He indicated himself, Goose, and Toshiro.

"Well," Daisuke said looking up at the ceiling thoughtfully. "My plane won't run properly without a proper technician or electrician. Plus I'll need someone who can load my weapons before takeoff."

"Well, I'm an expert on all kinds of aircraft," Goose said rubbing his chin. "Maybe I can be the mechanic?"

"That sounds good to me, Goose." Daisuke said with a smile.

"My dad taught me a good deal about electronics," Toshiro said. "Maybe I can be your electrician."

"Loading weapons can help my reflexes in kendo, perhaps I could do that." Junichi added his own bit.

"Then it's settled." Daisuke said looking at his three friends. "I'll be counting on you guys to keep my plane in tip-top shape."

"No sweat pal!" Toshiro said, patting Daisuke's back.

Daisuke said nothing for a moment before looking back up at the ceiling with a smile and said, "You know, I actually had fun." His statement made the others look at him. "Flying in that Hayabusa was really fun. I got to do things I had almost forgotten how to do since my dad died. I almost forgot what it was like to be up there flying through the clouds and seeing the world from up there." He closed his eyes almost imagining himself being back inside the cockpit of the Ki-43. "I actually missed all that."

His friends all looked at him with thoughtful smiles on their faces, almost imagining for themselves as to what it would be like to be in Daisuke's position.

"Hey Daisuke!" Saori's voice interrupted their thoughts through the wall.

"Yeah, Saori-chan?" Daisuke called back.

"Are you boys almost done?" She asked them.

"Just about!" Daisuke answered for them all.

"Good! 'Cause there's some place where we can all go before going home!"

The boys all looked at each other, curious as to what Saori had meant.

* * *

Later the whole group found themselves in a home and garden store with Miho pushing a cart and the others walking with her. Saori had dragged them to the store in the hopes of making their tank more comfortable to ride in. She said that riding in the tank was a little uncomfortable after riding in it for a certain amount of time. They had already grabbed a few pillows for the seats and were looking to grab a few other things, much to Yukari's disappointment.

"I don't see why we had to come along," Toshiro said, with his hands behind his head. "We're not riding in the tank with you girls."

"No," Saori said, looking at them. "But don't you boys want to be comfortable on the ground while Daisuke's up in the air?"

"Well, I suppose when you put it that way…" Junichi said thoughtfully.

"Plus we can give Daisuke a cushion for his plane so he's a bit more comfortable." Saori added cheerfully.

"Pass!" Daisuke finally said, crossing his arms in an "X" shape. "I'm plenty comfortable in my plane, thank you very much."

"Aww, c'mon Daisuke!" Saori pleaded with him.

"The answer is, no!" Daisuke argued back.

"Fine…" Saori finally relented, making Daisuke sigh in relief. But it didn't last as she finally grinned. "Then you're buying dinner, Daisuke!"

"What!?" Daisuke yelped in shock making everyone laugh at his expense.

* * *

The next day, the group of 9 friends came to class with a shock awaiting them. Almost all of the tank teams had painted their tanks in bright colors or in some fashion to make their tanks look more appealing. The Type-93 had been painted with kanji markings that said "fight" or "guts" along with a volleyball painted on the armor. The M3 Lee had been painted a hot pink color all around. The StuG III had been painted blue, red, yellow, and white along with the words "Veni-vidi-vici" painted on the front, emblems of certain figures in history, and to complete the look four Japanese style flags were posted on the tank destroyer. The Student council's tank stood out the most, it was painted a bright gold color.

The planes were the same colors they came as, but the boys had painted their planes a little bit. The F4 had its tail panted a crimson red, and the number 302 painted on the wings alongside the school's emblem. On the nose, was the image of a black anthromorphic cartoon cat carrying a cartoon black bomb was painted on it.

The Fw-109 was still in its black color scheme, but with the words "Team Oorai Luftwaffe" painted on the nose along with a yellow spiral painted on the tip of the propeller. The Zero was still it's white paint scheme with the school's emblem but with the image of an anime girl that looked almost like Anzu was painted on the nose. The kanji term for "Banzai" was also painted on the plane. The only plane that was not changed inside or out was Daisuke's Hayabusa; the only thing it had painted on it was the school's emblem on the wing and fuselage and its serial number stenciled on the left side of the tail.

Earlier, Miho, Yukari, Saori, Hana, and Mako had put the stuff they had bought the previous day into their tank. Each of their seats now had a cushion or two, along with a few other miscellaneous items to make the tank a bit more…homey. But needless to say, while most of the guys were gobsmacked at the paintjobs the girls did to their tanks, Yukari and Goose were completely livid!

"What the heck…" One of Johnny's mechanics said as he stared at the tanks in utter disbelief.

"Why did they paint their tanks like that?" One of Fredrick's mechanics said to no one in particular.

"Haven't these girls ever heard of camouflage?" Johnny added his own two bits.

With the student council, Yoshi and Anzu nodded to each other.

"Shall we give them a call?" Momo asked the two of them.

"Might as well," Yoshi answered with a nod. "We won't get a proper field test if we don't."

"Huh? What are you guys talking about?" Yuzuko asked in puzzlement.

"Give who a call?" Hayao asked himself. But neither of the other student council members answered them as both Momo and Takeo walked away towards the main building.

With our main group of friends, Saori was fuming at the sight of the other girls' tanks and how they all had been repainted in these flashy designs.

"We should've repainted ours!" She cried indignantly.

"Ahh! Those tanks are completely ruined!" Yukari cried.

"They're just asking for their tanks to get blown to bits!" Goose cried as he too was appalled at what the girls had done to the tanks.

"Well, this is the first time any of these girls have operated a tank so we can't blame them for wanting to be a little flashy at first right?" Daisuke reasoned a little but not wanting to be truthful with his statement. His thoughts were interrupted as he heard Miho starting to laugh. "Miho-chan?"

"Nishizumi-dono?"

Miho turned to them with an amused look on her face. "I'm sorry; I just couldn't imagine tanks being turned into something like this." She said with a laugh. "But it's kind of fun. This is the first time I've ever thought that tanks could be fun."

They just stared at her a little before they returned her amused look with laughs of their own.

"Well, when you put it that way, Miho-chan…" Daisuke said as he walked up to stand next to her. "I guess I could probably say the same about airplanes."

* * *

Meanwhile, several miles away onboard another school warship, a young lady who had light blonde hair tied in a bun on the back of her head had answered an antique telephone while having tea and sweets with her fellow student council girls. On the other line was none other than Momo asking her if their school would be interested in having an exhibition match against their school alongside another school for their newly reopened tankery and dogfighting teams. This girl was known as Darjeeling, the captain of the St Gloriana Academy's tankery team.

"Oorai High School?" The girl asked in a prim and proper tone. "So you have reopened both your tankery and dogfighting classes? Congratulations." She paused slightly as she listened to Momo on the other end. "No, that's alright. We don't run away from a challenge, and I'm sure our counterparts in St Arthur won't either." She paused again. "But of course, I will personally tell Pat about the match myself. Goodbye." She then hung up the phone and turned to her two companions. "Well, ladies, it seems we have a match in a couple of days against Oorai High School. They had just restarted their Tankery Class and their Dogfighting Class. So we'll be teaming up with our old friends at St Arthur Academy."

"That's exciting news." A girl with the same hair style as Darjeeling said with a smile. "I'm sure Pat will be excited to face their planes."

"I will see to it that our tanks and their crews are ready." A girl who had even lighter blond hair than Darjeeling said.

"Of course." Darjeeling nodded before sitting back down. "In the meantime, I'll pay our friends at St Arthur Academy a visit in the morning." She took a sip of her tea and smiled, looking out the window. _'This will be an interesting match, I just know it.'_

Darjeeling was right about one thing, the upcoming match between their schools would be an interesting one.

* * *

**A/N:** Whew! That was a LONG chapter! Took me forever to get this done! Sorry it took so long for me to get it done folks, so many things have happened that kinda hampered my progress. But now...*sniffle* Girls und Panzer is over! But I have to say, it was exciting from start to finish. I'm praying that there will be a season 2, because just 1 season isn't enough. Now you all know what to do, post a review!


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